"If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons"
About this Quote
Lewis comes at you sideways here: not with a sermon about kindness, but with a cold-blooded syllogism that makes your stomach turn. The line is built like a trap. Start with a practice many readers will tolerate or ignore (the cutting up of animals, whether in vivisection, factory slaughter, or scientific experiment), then tighten the screw: if power and species-loyalty are your only morals, you have no principled way to stop the knife when it moves to humans you consider disposable. The shock is the point. He’s not comparing animals to “imbeciles” or “criminals” to be cruel; he’s staging a reductio ad absurdum that exposes how quickly “might makes right” becomes policy.
The subtext is a warning about moral rationalizations masquerading as realism. “Backing our own side” is Lewis’s dry jab at tribal ethics: the comforting idea that belonging (species, nation, class) is enough to authorize harm. By adding “enemies” and “capitalists” in the same breath, he signals the ideological breadth of the danger. This isn’t aimed only at one camp; it’s a critique of any system - fascist, communist, utilitarian, technocratic - that treats some lives as raw material for progress.
Context matters: Lewis is writing in the shadow of the 20th century’s industrialized killing and its bureaucratic language of hygiene, efficiency, and necessity. The quote works because it denies the reader an easy exit. If you want ethics to be more than a scoreboard, you have to ground it in something other than dominance and convenience.
The subtext is a warning about moral rationalizations masquerading as realism. “Backing our own side” is Lewis’s dry jab at tribal ethics: the comforting idea that belonging (species, nation, class) is enough to authorize harm. By adding “enemies” and “capitalists” in the same breath, he signals the ideological breadth of the danger. This isn’t aimed only at one camp; it’s a critique of any system - fascist, communist, utilitarian, technocratic - that treats some lives as raw material for progress.
Context matters: Lewis is writing in the shadow of the 20th century’s industrialized killing and its bureaucratic language of hygiene, efficiency, and necessity. The quote works because it denies the reader an easy exit. If you want ethics to be more than a scoreboard, you have to ground it in something other than dominance and convenience.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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