In this episode, we dive into C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, a critique of modern education, morality, and the collapse of objective value. Lewis warns that by rejecting objective morality in favor of subjective feelings, society risks creating a generation of “men without chests”—people without the virtue necessary for moral judgment.

However, Lewis’s diagnosis, while prescient, falls short in anticipating the true consequences of this collapse. Today, we’re stuck in a paradox: while society embraces nihilism and despair, it also places its faith in scientism and utopian progress. What Lewis couldn’t predict was how liberalism’s rejection of metaphysical grounding would evolve into postmodern despair and a technocratic utopia that offers no true meaning.

We explore how the shift from reason to will in modern society mirrors Nietzsche’s vision, though not in the way Lewis expected. We also discuss the persistence of “magic” and it’s interaction with scientism, the search for utopia and a new form of existential emptiness, and how this all connects to the crisis of reason and authority in the modern world.

Tune in for a fresh reading of The Abolition of Man and a look at how Lewis’s ideas still resonate today—while missing some of the most critical elements of the modern crisis.

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