John C. Wright's Journal

I found this gem in my comments box, and thought it merited emphasis.

A reader with the onomatopoetic name of ThPlonk remarks:

A post or two ago someone raised the issue of whether we should do anything to stop the atheistic progressives from pursuing self-destructive policies – after all if our enemies destroy themselves our work is done isn’t it?

Reading this post, I realized something: Satan knows he is beaten. He isn’t trying to win – he’s trying to maximize harm. He therefore commands his troops in a way that will destroy as many of his own people as possible. The Radical Left’s marching orders become chillingly clear:

Babies are to be killed, preferably before they can cry for help. If they survive, they should have their sexuality mutilated both chemically and surgically as young as possible. Men are to be emasculated, silenced, and shamed. The women should be sent out to fight instead, preferably alone because this makes them stronger. Their fight should take the shape of mob lynchings and kangaroo courts – if we cannot find any elderly bakers or 15-year-old schoolchildren to prosecute they should turn on themselves and purge their own ranks.

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Today’s must-read Superversive SF article is from my lovely and talented wife, Mrs Wright, who writes under the name L Jagi Lamplighter

http://www.superversivesf.com/2019/05/13/message-is-the-new-comedy/

Recently, there was a quote going around about how late night shows no longer contained comedy, because comedians can’t get away with mocking anything anymore. Instead, they make political comments that agree with their audience’s bias and then pause for their audience’s reaction.

But instead of laughter, they get applause.

I was thinking about that while I was watching a new (to me) show. Friends had recommended it. The premise looked amusing. The show was funny. Lots of real comedy.

But occasionally, there would be some bit of Liberal doctrine tossed to the audience in exactly the way a story normally might use comedy.

In other words: It wasn’t part of the plot. It wasn’t part of the story. It wasn’t character development. It didn’t matter or affect the outcome.  It was merely standing all by itself as if it were waiting for a high five in exactly the way that comedy gets a laugh.

Watching this, I thought: and that is what we mean when we say we don’t like message fiction.

Please read the whole thing. 

From the Pen of Matthew Bowman

The Seven Sacraments of the Religious Left

• Taxes: The First Sacrament. (Envy.)
  Instituted a hundred years ago, this sacrament teaches that the rich are evil. The rich may absolve themselves of this sin by devoting their lives (at least publicly) to the Church of Leftism.

I heard this short essay being discussed recently. Written in 1990, it is remarkable in its prescience. I need not say to what topic, preoccupying the headlines of all newspapers, this pertains.

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The controversy about Dr. Peterson’s reflections on whether truth must prove itself in action, I hope has been exhausted, and will die down.

I think the matter is too plain to admit of further debate. My own patience is exhausted, and my temper is short, so best if I withdraw from the discussion.

Here is one comment that seems to me to be exceeding wise on the topic, so allow me to quote it and step aside. This is from a reader with the exclusively egress-like name of Exit Only:

“When Peterson says you just a truth by its effect on life and healthy and happiness, critics jump on him. But when Christ says you will know true prophets and teacher from false by the fruits of their doctrines, that is, by the practical results when ideas are put in action, that is saluted as divine wisdom.”

I think the element of time, or better yet the word eternity, puts the definition of truth past beyond mere practical moral utility for this mortal life spent on earth. To be true is to have character, in and out of season, even when no one is watching, even at the cost of one’s time, convenience, or standing within a community.

Now why would anyone care to practice such truth, if no good deed, as Mark Twain once quipped, never goes unpunished? Unless we instinctively know we are preparing to go to a place to where character counts more earthly accomplishments?
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