Tom Simon draws attention to an important Dorothy Sayers quote:
If we refuse assent to reality: if we rebel against
the nature of things and choose to think that what we at the moment want
is the centre of the universe to which everything else ought to
accommodate itself, the first effect on us will be that the whole
universe will seem to be filled with an inexplicable hostility. We shall
begin to feel that everything has a down on us, and that, being so
badly treated, we have a just grievance against things in general. That
is the knowledge of good and evil and the fall into illusion. If we
cherish and fondle that grievance, and would rather wallow in it and
vent our irritation in spite and malice than humbly admit we are in the
wrong and try to amend our behaviour so as to get back to reality, that
is, while it lasts, the deliberate choice, and a foretaste of the
experience of Hell.—Dorothy L. Sayers, Introductory Papers on Dante
I leave it to the reader to decide to what sort of all-too-familiar figure Sayers is describing here.