"Those who prefer security to freedom have lost both" - Dion Fortune writing during the Battle of Britain

From a letter of August 4th 1940 

There is something very strange about this war. The nations that have been subjugated were not beaten in the field, they fell to treachery and internal corruption; to lack of morale and lack of the will to victory. 

The key to their fall may be found in the words: "he who would save his life shall lose it, and he who will lose his life for My sake shall find it."

Those who prefer security to freedom have lost both. 

England stands alone and happy. All war gloom has gone. There is confidence in the future and pride in the present. Power is rising within us like a tide. The inflowing of a new life impulse is making itself felt. 

Letter 36 from The Magical Battle of Britain, by Dion Fortune. The war letters of Dion Fortune, edited by Gareth Knight.  

**

This insight of Dion Fortune referring to a very particular and unusual time and place has general validity. After the Second World War, there was a massive and (so far) irreversible collapse of Christianity in Britain. It was replaced by an overwhelming focus on this-worldly and material matters - i.e. what DF here terms "security". 

Nothing mattered to post-war people except security, happiness, prosperity, comfort, convenience and diversion. 

And, as predicted, this has led to the erosion, and incipient near-complete loss, of all of these - but especially security. 

Unless the material is located in the spirit, unless the mundane is situated in the divine, this-world in eternity - then the material, mundane, this-worldly Goods will not merely be lost - but thrown-away.