L’Engle and Statism

Equality.

Unity.

Peace.

Fear.

Camazotz has no crime, no discrimination, no inequity, and no freedom.  Unfeeling and calculating, the sadistic state enforces egalitarianism with a tyrannical obsession–a global standard of unquestionable sameness.  Children’s literature though it may be, Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time illustrates the dystopian potential of rampant statism with terrifying simplicity.

L’Engle hits upon a critical point in the course of her novel, particularly in a climactic standoff between the looming government–named IT, ironically a large, pulsing brain–and the courageous Meg Murray.  Despite all its power, its ability to fabricate equality and peace, this embodied state cannot mimic or replace the girl’s simple ability to love.  Her charity–caritas, in this sense–stems from the natural human capacity to give of one’s self, and is far beyond any policy program or regulatory measure.

Meg realizes with a start that “IT could not withstand love.”  Likewise, the welfare state may be well-intentioned at first glance, but it is crippled without this fundamental human quality.  As the safeguard of human dignity, states must instead foster the free exercise of love, rather than forcibly suppressing its existence.

Needless to say, L’Engle has become a recovered favorite from my childhood readings.