C. S. Lewis On Mere Liberty And The Evils Of Statism

"Lewis’s aversion to government was clearly revealed in 1951 when Winston Churchill, within weeks after he regained office as prime minister of Great Britain, wrote to Lewis offering to have him knighted as 'Commander of the Order of the British Empire.' Lewis flatly declined the honor because he, unlike the 'progressives,' was never interested in politics and was deeply skeptical of government power and politicians, as expressed in the first two lines of his poem 'Lines during a General Election': 'Their threats are terrible enough, but we could bear / All that; it is their promises that bring despair.'"