The Abolition Of Man: Paradoxical Power

The human quest to "conquer nature" is an age-old idea that can be traced back to the most basic of inventions, such as the wheel. A simple wheel is one of a million examples that illustrate man's desire to defy what is natural: walking on one's own two feet. In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis proposes that the ability to conquer nature is merely an illusion, and ultimately impossible. This is shown not only through enormous concepts such as life and death, but also in the much smaller details of life. Using all of these tools, The Abolition of Man captures the essence of man's hopeless conquest. Lewis suggests that this same hopeless conquest for power over nature is what will, in the end, lead to the abolition of man. Because man will never cease to attempt to gain power over nature, nature will eventually take power over man.

In order to clearly understand why it truly is impossible to conquer nature, one must first start with a concrete example: death. C.S. Lewis begins to unpack his ideas with a story of his friend that was dying of tuberculosis. " Ð''No matter,' he said, Ð''I know I'm one of the casualties. Of course there are casualties on the winning as well as on the losing side. But that doesn't alter the fact that it is winning.' " (67). These casualties that Lewis' friend speaks of are victims of tuberculosis on a small scale, but on a larger scale they are the casualties of the cycle of life and death. This sets the tone for the rest of the chapter. The inevitability of death is not negotiable or debatable, and Lewis knows that the reader will be able to understand this. Death is one of the phenomenons of nature that cannot be conquered, in spite of scientific and medical discoveries. In turn, death cannot and will never be "conquered". While it can be fought off for a certain amount of time, it cannot be escaped. This proves that the quest for immortality is equally as absurd and impossible as the quest for power over nature.

While death is the first and one of the most major issues that Lewis addresses, there are also smaller ways in which he portrays the impossibility of man conquering nature. He asks the reader to consider three things: "the aeroplane, the wireless, and the contraceptive" (68). Defying things such as gravity or the conception of life on the surface seem to be things that seem to be proof that man can conquer nature. However, C.S. Lewis then goes on to point out that these things are all only accessible to man at the dispense of another man's hand. "What we call Man's power is, in reality, a power possessed by some men which they may, or may not, allow other men to profit by" (68). All of these things that give man the false sense of defying nature, in actuality, are merely used by other men to turn a profitÐ'--and if they are not getting a profit, they will cut the supply. Humans sell and market to other humans this sense that they have power over nature. This idea is bizarre, but holds much truth. Without money, there would be no motivation to create and distribute things such as the airplane, wireless or contraceptive.

A modern example of this is what happened on the tragic day of September 11, 2001. Flying in an airplane, the passengers had no idea the horrible fate that awaited them that day. Every single one had enough confidence in man's ability to "conquer nature", confidence in the system, and that nothing was going to happen to them. They were confident enough in the airline, the airplane, and the other passengers