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On Politics Part Six — Barbarism, Inequality, Tyranny

Posted June 17, 2013 By John C Wright

Here we venture into an area where the philosopher can no longer rely merely on observations of patently obvious natural truths. In discussing the different opinions about the directions and degrees of danger, we enter into judgments where reasonable men can differ, and a perfect rigor of logic is not possible. It is possible, without any self-contradiction, for example, to regard the danger to peace and good order created by sedition to be paramount above the danger from the sovereign infringing on the freedom of speech; and likewise, it is possible, without any self contradiction, to regard the danger to the public weal caused by manufacturers fraudulently introducing defective and dangerous goods into the stream of commerce to be paramount above the legal necessity of proving negligence before tortuous or criminal liability attaches. These are not questions mere logic can solve. These are judgment calls, which depend on a nicety of discrimination, sober prudence, and a sense of proportion rightly to decide.

The central paradox of politics is discovering how to win the maximum benefit from civilization while minimizing the discontents. Political theory concerning specific forms and policies of government will differ primarily over a difference in judgment about the discontents of civilization.

On a national level, difference of political theory will differ as different opinions read the character and history of a people differently or the character of the era in which they live. On a universal level, difference of political theory will differ as different opinions read the character of man differently.

At the current time, among the nation in which I live, there are three distinct political theories in competition for the minds and souls of the next generation.

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On Politics Part Five — Civilization and its Discontents

Posted June 16, 2013 By John C Wright

As stated above, this essay attempts no novel scheme. If the reader notices the parallel between the statement that it is a self evident truth that governments are instituted among men to secure to themselves their natural right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and statement that the primary passions and interests which incline men to civilization are love of life, of the good life, and of domestic life, the parallel is no coincidence.

To recapitulate: we know from the nature of reason that man is a rational animal possessed of free will. We know from even the most cursory examination of human nature that we live in a world of mortal danger and natural scarcity, and that we are political, bisexual and altracial creatures who naturally form families and tribes both to alleviate the scarcity of nature, and to prey on each other without mercy.

We know that in the absence of law and civilization, force and fraud will prevail, and the desire for life and liberty and domesticity impels men to create and uphold laws and customs to maintain civilization.

The primary purpose of law is to render men secure in their property and contracts, to secure their liberty, and to discourage the vice and unchastity which threatens marriage.

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On Politics Part Four — The Paradox of Law

Posted June 16, 2013 By John C Wright

When all the men in a tribe or neighborhood or region combine in their efforts to drive off raids and pirates and interlopers, the natural confusion which would otherwise result requires that they follow a single sovereign power as leader, and the natural depravity of man predicts that the sovereign be tempted to exploit the loyalty of his followers for the advantage of himself, his clan, his favorites, his gods and his greeds.

This then is the central paradox of law and the central task of politics: to arrange the laws so that the sovereign is strong enough to protect the innocent from criminals and invaders, but at the same time to restrict or restrain the sovereign to protect the innocent from him.

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On Politics Part Three — On Civilization

Posted June 15, 2013 By John C Wright

The word “civilization” originally meant life behind city walls. This definition is accurate enough for common parlance, because, due to the nature of human life on Earth, tilling and reaping the soil in fixed locations and retreating behind walled fortifications during times of raid and assault is a natural if not inevitable outgrowth of social cooperation on a scale larger than tribal operations. There are disadvantages to forsaking the life of wandering shepherds or nomadic horsemen, but the advantage of having a settled seat of power is that it naturally lends itself to the invention and diffusion of writing, calculation, astronomy, the erection of walls, towers, canals and monuments, and other civilized arts.

However for the purposes of this essay, “civilization” here shall mean the customary and habitual submission to the rule of law, whose purpose is to mitigate the ills which follow the natural anarchy to which the passions and self interest of men incline them. There is nothing innate in the nature of nomadic life or life in a band of hunter-gatherers which prevents the elder or patriarch from establishing clear albeit unwritten rules, to be chanted or recited and strictly obeyed by successive generations.

The primary civilized art, and the one which allows all others to exist, is the art of law, which is the reduction of the ineffable organic complexity of those customs and practices seeking justice, peace, and civil order to a few simple or stereotyped commandments, written or recited without redaction, enforced by recognized formalities of court.

Law, in other words, is the attempt to reduce the operation of justice to ritual. The purpose of this reduction is manyfold.

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Doxacon!

Posted June 14, 2013 By John C Wright

Renowned science-fiction writer and Nebula Award finalist, John C.
Wright, and his wife, author L. Jagi Lamplighter-Wright, will be session presenters
at Doxacon! The Wright’s will speak as a couple at Session 1 on Saturday, July
20. Please see the schedule to your left for details. You may also click HERE
to see the complete listing of topics, synopsis and biographies of our speakers.

Session Topic: “You Got Your Christianity in My Science Fiction!”

Synopsis: A discussion of the joys and tribulations of combining Christianity and
speculative fiction: both from a social perspective–facing Christians who disapprove
of magic/fantasy and geeks who reject all things Christian–and from a technical
perspective–how combine these elements to tell the best story.
John C. Wright
is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist
(for the fantasy novel “Orphans of Chaos”), he was called “this fledgling century’s
most important new SF talent” by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut
novel, “The Golden Age”).
L. Jagi Lamplighter
is the author of “Prospero Lost”, “Prospero In Hell”, “Prospero Regained” and “The
Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin”. When not writing, she reverts to her
secret identity as an at-home mother in Centerville, Virginia, where she lives with
her husband, John C. Wright, and their four children, Orville, Ping-Ping, Roland
Wilbur, and Justinian Oberon.

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On Politics Part Two — On the Human Condition

Posted June 14, 2013 By John C Wright

The axiomatic truths of reality can eliminate from consideration any political view not based on sound metaphysics.

So much any philosopher could deduce of the human condition in the privacy of his armchair, merely by observing the operations of his own mind and analyzing his unspoken assumptions behind his own thought processes. But if he flings open the door of his cell, or stares in wonder from the window, certain truths too obvious to deny will impress themselves deeply upon his awareness.

Three great natural truths should impress themselves on any man who opens his doors or opens his mind, and looks with unclouded eyes at his fellow man, at the pages of history, or at the looking glass.

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On Politics Part One — The Metaphysics of Politics

Posted June 14, 2013 By John C Wright

I have been asked to explain in a rigorous way the political philosophy to which I adhere. I can promise the reader no startling revelations, nor do I propose any new system, but instead I seek to place on a clear and plain footing what in these darkened days has sadly become unclear to far too many men, and I seek to call men back to their first love, and remind them of that which civilization was erected to protect. Whether this effort is in vain in not for me to say; I leave that to the candid judgment of the reader. What I will say is, as the apothegm of GK Chesterton declared, even a bad shot is honorable when he accepts a challenge to duel.

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Appeal from Catholic Vote

Posted June 6, 2013 By John C Wright

I pass this along to my readers in case any of you honest and decent folk out there wish to contribute to the cause. It is from Catholic Vote, an organization that was also targeted and harassed.

 

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Alfonzo on Bullies

Posted June 5, 2013 By John C Wright

Had to share this

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Reviewer Wow from Analog

Posted June 5, 2013 By John C Wright

There is no publication more respected in the field of Hard SF. For my humble space opera to get a plaudit from the grim and strict reviewers at Analog, whose standards are high, is like Orpheus making Pluto smile. Here is the review: https://www.analogsf.com/2013_07-08/reflib.shtml

The Hermetic Millennia

In last year’s Count to a Trillion (reviewed in the March 2012 issue), John C. Wright began the story of Menelaus Montrose: twenty-third century hired gun and science fiction fan turned transhuman genius. In easy stages, we followed this improbable pilgrim’s progress through an interstellar alien society brimming with augmented intellects, artificial intelligences, and near-immortal races whose technology and motives were beyond comprehension.

Nevertheless, Menelaus gave as good as he got; he steadily advanced to demigodlike power without losing his own humanity. By the end of Count to a Trillion, Menelaus was well-positioned to be humanity’s protector in a hostile Universe.

Good thing, too, because there are some bad guys coming. An alien armada is on its way to Earth, bent on making slaves of the population. They’ll arrive in only eight thousand years.

There’s also danger closer to home: some of Menelaus’s former comrades, with powers as great as his own, decide that they can make an advantageous deal with the slavers—especially if they use the next eight millennia to evolve humans into something even more useful to the bad guys.

Menelaus sets his plans and goes into secure cryogenic suspension . . . but not for long. He finds that he must awaken periodically to deal with the machinations of his enemies.
Across eight millennia, humanity is split into various sub-species such as Chimera, Giants, Locusts, Witches, and others, each more bizarre than the last, and all hostile to one another. If Menelaus is going to pull these subspecies together and save them all, he has quite a job ahead of him.

Wright does an excellent job of guiding the reader through this strange and wonderful future. With appealing characters and just the right bit of humor, he keeps all his plates spinning without letting the story slow down. There are even a few of those moments that make you say “Wow!”

The Hermetic Millennia is the second book of a projected four-book series, so there’s plenty more left in store for Menelaus and his associates.

The quote above comes from an article copyrighted by Mr Don Sakers, and my quote here is Fair Use, with no implied imposition on that copywright.

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The Nine Worthies

Posted June 2, 2013 By John C Wright

For your daily recommended requirement of Chesterton, the Apostle of Common Sense:

“Christendom might quite reasonably have been alarmed if it had not been attacked. But as a matter of history it had been attacked. The Crusader would have been quite justified in suspecting the Moslem even if the Moslem had merely been a new stranger; but as a matter of history he was already an old enemy. The critic of the Crusade talks as if it had sought out some inoffensive tribe or temple in the interior of Thibet, which was never discovered until it was invaded. They seem entirely to forget that long before the Crusaders had dreamed of riding to Jerusalem, the Moslems had almost ridden into Paris. They seem to forget that if the Crusaders nearly conquered Palestine, it was but a return upon the Moslems who had nearly conquered Europe.” The Meaning of The Crusade. (1920)

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Baron Bodissey

Posted June 1, 2013 By John C Wright

Science Fiction Grandmaster Jack Vance recently passed away, and I noted in a previous article his influence on Gary Gagyx. He has also influenced Gene Wolfe, whose SHADOW OF THE TORTURER series is an extended homage to him.

But there is one other influence I would be remiss not to mention. not only graces the chapter headings of Jack Vance’s masterwork, the Demon Princes series (also known as the Count of Montechristo in Space) but has taken up his pen against the contumacious mass-idiocy of our day, the suicidal, nay, hysterical desire of our elite not to recognize the threat of Jihad, nor to take up arms against it.

They are more afraid of Christians, and quake in terror at night, hiding under their beds, expecting at any moment riots, mass killings, the Inquisition, and the burning of heretics, nay, the stoning of unbelievers. This is because they are members of societies whose moral code and expectations were set by Christendom, and they know they eroded and destroyed that moral code for frivolous reasons. The consciences haunt them, and a desire for suicide rises within them, because they would rather die than admit they were wrong, rather die than give up their drugs and whores, rather die than make rational judgments, rather die than think. If they think, they truth might confront them.

Because they are panicked with fear that the screaming mob of Christians will being throwing homosexuals off buildings, throwing acid in the face of schoolgirls, stoning rape victim to death, the elite placates, whitewashes, lies, and aids and abets the Mohammedans who actually do these things. So they placate the Mohammedans, which rewards and encourages them, and they hide the truth from the West to the best of their ability, which disarms and lulls them. They are more afraid of an imaginary danger than a real one. So they encourage and increase the real danger, and lash out in panic at the false one.

Thank heavens there are some voices of sanity raised against this madness. The Baron is one of them. I strongly urge all readers to put him on their daily reading lists.

Here he speaks of what he does and why:

http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/what-we-do-and-why-we-do-it/

Excerpt below the cut:
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Vance and Gygax

Posted June 1, 2013 By John C Wright

I assume all geeks of the Innate Elite level know this, but in case any novices do not, here is an article on the topic:

I decided — for the first time — to completely read through the 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, cover to cover.

[…]

Not surprisingly, I didn’t make it very far — not past the credits and acknowledgements — before finding my first curiosity. Along with presumable designers, developers, artists, and playtesters (among them, Dave Arneson, James M. Ward, Ernie and Luke Gygax, Skip Williams, and more), Gary Gygax singled out one author for special mention: Jack Vance.

Later in the book in Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading, you can find a list of books that influenced the game, including Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, Robert Howard — and Jack Vance. But why, of all these luminaries, did the Dungeon Master’s Guide single Vance out in the acknowledgements?

I knew the basic answer: the spellcasting system is stolen straight from Vance, as are many of the names (Excellent Prismatic Spray, and so on), and of course the IOUN stones are from Vance.

What I did not know was that Vecna was an anagram of Vance.

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4alum/20110513

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