Wormwood, writes Screwtape, is doing a terrible job.
They will fight over who gets to be unselfish, and no one will be happy. The others will insist on doing what the Patient wants. Then, later, once the Patient and woman have a family, Wormwood should try to create “Generous Conflict.” When something trivial is proposed, like having tea, Wormwood should make the Patient say he doesn’t want to have tea but will do it for the sake of the others. This difference in definitions is what makes both men and women regard each other as selfish. Men think being unselfish means not causing other people trouble, and women think it means taking on trouble to help others.
Wormwood must trick the Patient and the Woman into thinking the good will they have toward each other at this moment, a result of sexual excitement, is genuine unselfishness used to be called charity. In reality, the problems are hidden behind the intensity of their initial emotions. Wormwood should take advantage of this by making them feel that love has solved any potential domestic problems. This opens up a space for devils to enter their lives and bend human actions to Hell’s desires. Humans can’t know the future, but they distract themselves trying to predict it. The Enemy wants men to ask simple questions: Is it virtuous? Is it possible? But Hell wants men to worry about whether a proposal is novel, whether it fits the spirit of the times. unifies the new and old with Rhythm-the Rhythm of the seasons, of youth, age, death, and birth.
This helps diminish pleasure and, at the same time, increases desire. They should corrupt a healthy desire for change into an obsession for absolute novelty. Devils should exploit the human tendency to make faith into a fad. It would be much better if the Woman and her family were Christians with a special interest, like faith healing or vegetarianism. The trouble with the Patient’s new set, writes Screwtape, is that it is merely Christian.
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