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More on the Right Use of Pity
Posted by editormum on 29 January 2006 in Uncategorized | ∞
Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it: or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves. …
… The passion of Pity … the ache that draws men to concede what should not be conceded and to flatter when they should speak truth … that will die. It was used as a weapon by bad men against good ones: their weapon shall be broken. …
[The action of Pity is] … a weapon on the other side. … But it will not, at the cunning tears of Hell, impose on good the tyranny of evil. …
— C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce
2 Comments
I don’t fully understand all of this, pity’s relationship to miser, but I do get and appreciate the first paragraph: there is a choice to be made between joy and misery. I chose and continue to choose joy. I’ve never read much C.S. Lewis, but his words are powerful in this piece.
I See Pity as a Form of Emotional Blackmail
It will suck the life out of those around the pitiful individual.