Screwtape knows that such envy is as old as the fall of man. What's new in the modern world is that an odious vice is now treated as a laudable virtue. Under the guise of "equality" and "democracy," envy is celebrated as respectable and praiseworthy. Screwtape commends the results of this demonic propaganda--it accomplishes the same ends as tyranny and dictatorship, but far more effectively. In a dictatorship, the tyrant must always be on the lookout for upstarts, for men and women under his rule who seek to rise up above their peers and thus challenge his rule. A clever tyrant will cut down any stalk of corn that stands out above the rest of the field. But when equality has been enshrined as an ideal, the tyrant need not cut down anyone; the little stalks will do it themselves. Under the influence of the egalitarian spirit, there is a movement toward the discrediting and eventual "elimination of every kind of human excellence--moral, cultural, social, or intellectual."