{"id":380,"date":"2010-07-28T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-28T11:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/07\/you-cant-go-around-building-a-better-world-for-people\/"},"modified":"2012-04-09T01:13:12","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T05:13:12","slug":"you-cant-go-around-building-a-better-world-for-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/07\/you-cant-go-around-building-a-better-world-for-people.html","title":{"rendered":"“You can’t go around building a better world for people”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For an explanation of what Weatherwax Wednesdays are all about, read the introduction post<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s Discworld<\/em> quote comes from Witches Abroad<\/em><\/a>, which is, among many other thing, a retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. In the story, Granny Weatherwax and her companions are pitted against a more conventional fairy godmother, who is intent on scripting a happy ending for the characters.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re the other kind [of godmother],\u2019 said Granny. \u2018We\u2019re the kind that gives people what they know they really need, not what we think they ought to want.\u2019<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

\u2018You can\u2019t go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it\u2019s just a cage.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At first glance, this seems like an argument for an entirely hands-off approach to character development [the virtues kind, not the authorial kind].\u00a0 Resist people imposing roles on you, constraint is intrinsically stifling, be who you want to be, etc, etc.<\/p>\n

But Granny clearly doesn\u2019t trust our wants.\u00a0 The roles we would choose are not the roles we ought to play. \u00a0The roles that Granny Weatherwax rejects are the ones that fit too comfortably.<\/p>\n

It is Lily, the conventional, storybook godmother who offers to preserve us as we are. The happy endings she promises are perfectly tailored to us and fit like swaddling blankets.\u00a0 To be treated as complete in ourselves is infantilizing and eliminates the possibility of growth.<\/p>\n

Granny can\u2019t build us a better world without building better people to populate it; flawed people cannot and ought not be at peace.\u00a0 An endless, numbing stasis is the best paradise we could hope for, lulled to sleep by the endless whisper of \u201cyou\u2019re perfect just the way you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of a utopia, we require a crucible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Granny-as-godmother reminds me of an episode from C.S. Lewis\u2019s The Great Divorce<\/em><\/a> (you can read the passage here<\/a>, but you ought to buy the book, which is excellent). \u00a0A man is tormented by a demon but is so used to its presence that he cannot imagine how his self would survive its destruction. \u00a0He balks when an angel \u00a0offers to throttle it.<\/p>\n

Lily the good fairy sees our flaws and offers us roles that will allow us to coexist with them in bearable compromise. \u00a0Hard-hearted Granny, in contrast, threatens us with a terrifying freedom. \u00a0Like Lewis\u2019s angel, she sees the worst in us, looks us in the eye and asks \u201cMay I kill it?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For an explanation of what Weatherwax Wednesdays are all about, read the introduction post.\u00a0 This week\u2019s Discworld quote comes from Witches Abroad, which is, among many other thing, a retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. In the story, Granny Weatherwax and her companions are pitted against a more conventional fairy godmother, who is intent on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,27],"tags":[26,42,135,14],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-morality-in-practice","category-parsing-catholicism","tag-burn-off-the-dross","tag-cs-lewis","tag-may-i-kill-it","tag-weatherwax-wednesday"],"yoast_head":"\n"You can't go around building a better world for people"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For an explanation of what Weatherwax Wednesdays are all about, read the introduction post.  This week\u2019s Discworld quote comes from Witches Abroad,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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