The Dwarves are for the Dwarves

Our Crisis of Trust

The Dwarves at a feast in the Stable, from The Last Battle. Original illustrations by Pauline Baynes.

In C.S. Lewis’s final book of the Narnia Chronicles, there is a huge battle between those who are faithful to Aslan and Old Narnia, and the conspiracy to use a fake Aslan to manipulate the masses. This Last Battle results in the Faithful being thrown into a ramshackle stable along with a party of dwarves who were rebelling as well. They had already lost trust in any real objective Aslan because of the imposter, and their chant was “The Dwarves are for the Dwarves!”

Although their captors believed that the stable would become the captives’ grave, the magic of Narnia had made the door of the stable into a portal to a new Narnia, vast and free and good. This goodness manifested itself as a feast of delightful foods with delicious smells (scene on the right) but tragically the dwarves could not believe their eyes and said the feast was moldy, sour, and inedible (scene on the left). At this point we might think that the dwarves had convinced themselves of this reality. But in actual fact Lewis is revealing a deeper depravity in his story—the dwarves are now incapable of sensing objective truth. Saddened, the heroes of the story walk away into paradise, leaving behind the dwarves in the pitiful squalor of their unbelief.

TO VAX OR NOT TO VAX

I wonder if this is an analogy that maps well onto our moment, as we struggle to know whom to trust. The vaccination controversy is a good example of this. Some believe that every vaccine the government recommends is necessary and important. Others believe that the government is colluding with Big Pharma, and want to spare their children from all vaccinations and their possible side effects. And there are many in the middle like me, who are alarmed at both an unquestioning acceptance of all vaxes, while also alarmed at the growing number of anti-vax friends who seem to have thrown out the baby with the bathwater.