John C. Wright's Blog, page 162
April 30, 2011
Atlas Shrugged and Tragic Shortage of Selfishness
I have already driven away one Objectivist, a man whose opinion and principles I somewhat admired, because he was offended that I listed her along with Robert Heinlein and John Norman as persons devoted to the Sexual Revolution and hence to the overthrow of normal, sane, civilized, and Christian sexual morality or, to use the technical term, the truth about sex.
So it is with some trepidation that I reveal that the philosophy of Ayn Rand and the truths of the Christian religion are incompatible: I trust no one is so shocked by the news that he too will depart in anger. Ayn Rand’s Objectivism is an atheist creed that follows Epicurean moral reasoning, holding that man’s good and goal in life (this life only) is the pursuit of self interest rightly understood.
Admirer as I may be of her work, where Rand disagrees with the truth of things, there she and I part ways. Not to put too coy a face on the matter, the lady is a heretic, that is, someone who took some small part of the Jewish and Christian religion, our concern for the individual soul, and inflated it to become a monstrous idol bent on overwhelming the other parts of the religion, such as, for example, love of charity.
Her vinegar is useful enough to wipe away the sickening stains of that other heretic, Marx, and his many collectivist and relativist and Politically Correct epigones, and so wins my salute; but she also supports adultery and aborticide and other abominations and gross lapses of logic.
Also, she does not like Tolstoy. Unforgivable!
Hence it is with some pleasure that I read this from the Christian theologian whose work I most admire, Mr. David Bentley Hart:
I like the Sermon on the Mount. She [Ayn Rand] regarded its prescriptions as among the vilest ever uttered. I suspect that charity really is the only way to avoid wasting one’s life in a desert of sterile egoism. She regarded Christian morality as a poison that had polluted the will of Western man with its ethos of parasitism and orgiastic self-oblation. And, simply said, I cannot find much common ground with someone who believed that the principal source of human woe over the last twenty centuries has been a tragic shortage of selfishness.
This is part of his review of the new Atlas Shrugged film, which he regards, perhaps rightly, as a sign of the Ragnarok. Read here for an amusing degree of Ayn Randian vitriol, employed denouncing Rand, but with considerably more humor and lightness than she was wont to employ:
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2011/05/the-trouble-with-ayn-rand
And while we are admiring movie reviews, check out this from Bill Whittle, where he discusses the Cthulhu-level shocking and blasphemous insanity known as the flick version of STARSHIP TROOPERS, and the beloved Woody Woodpecker vehicle, DESTINATION MOON :
http://declarationentertainment.com/take-movie-work-starship-troopers-and-destination-moon
April 24, 2011
He is Risen
Here is a video I found by chance, with images from THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST set to music from SAINT JOHN’S PASSION. This is for those who might think the holiday is about chocolate and brightly colored eggs.
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Summon the Day of Deliverance
A poem for Good Friday, a day of fasting, but of impossible hope. And this year, the virtuous pagans (and otherwise) celebrate their Mother Earth Day on this same date. Here is the poem:
From
The Forest Of Wild Thyme
by Alfred Noyes
Little Boy Blue, come blow up your horn,
Summon the day of deliverance in:
We are weary of bearing the burden of scorn
As we yearn for the home that we never shall win;
For here there is weeping and sorrow and sin.
And the poor and the weak are a spoil for the strong!
Ah, when shall the song of the ransomed begin?
The world is grown weary with waiting so long.
Little Boy Blue, you are gallant and brave,
There was never a doubt in those clear bright eyes.
Come, challenge the grim dark Gates of the Grave
As the skylark sings to those infinite skies!
This world is a dream, say the old and the wise,
And its rainbows arise o’er the false and the true;
But the mists of the morning are made of our sighs,–
Ah, shatter them, scatter them, Little Boy Blue!
Little Boy Blue, if the child-heart knows,
Sound but a note as a little one may;
And the thorns of the desert shall bloom with the rose,
And the Healer shall wipe all tears away;
Little Boy Blue, we are all astray,
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn,
Ah, set the world right, as a little one may;
Little Boy Blue, come blow up your horn!
April 18, 2011
Eugenics! Remember when?
http://m-francis.livejournal.com/195458.html
In the year 1933 physician Ira S. Wile predicted what marriage would be like in 2033. In his day, Darwinism was all the rage, and all the Best Thinkers were looking forward to the day when marriage would be put on a rational and scientific basis. In this future, there would be“a bureau of records under government control that would begin monitoring people the day they were born. …Everything about a person would be recorded; from someone’s physical and mental defects at birth to the subjective progress and imperfections of that person throughout their life. Then, when someone wished to be married, they would be assessed by bureaucrats and found a suitable mate based upon case cards that have been cross-indexed against members of the opposite sex. These assessments would be made based on class and desirable physical and mental traits.”
There is something just a little bit creepy about this brave new world, with its whiff of scientism, Darwinism, Nietzsche, and Aldous Huxley. It is also Art Deco.
On Conformity (Answer to the 3 AD Hypothetical)
My apologies for being light with my postings of late, but my latest manuscript is due in a fortnight, and I have more than forty pages of works to work. My copyedits for the previous volume are due and overdue, and my available time is under-sufficient.
In the spirit of Holy Week, let me post for this week’s post a brief thought I have been toying of as of late.
I have outraged some of my non-theist friends of late, and while I am sorrowful for this, I am in no way surprised. It is inevitable; unavoidable.
Does that sound like an excuse? This essay means to show that it is not.
We Christians are supposed to be outrageous. If we do not outrage the practical worldly thinkers (who have practical reasons to do and to excuse evil works) and the idealists (who have elaborate abstract reasons to do and to excuse evil works) and the zealots (who do evil works out of wrath and pride, without bothering with excuses) why, then we are not following in the footsteps of Our Master, who outraged the practical and worldly Sadducee, outraged the idealistic and elaborate Pharisee, and outraged the angry Zealot.
April 11, 2011
Assumption Cost
We often speak of whether an hypothesis is likely or unlikely, but these words are misleading; for likelihood refers only to how often a specific case appears in a group of general cases, such as, for example, if it snows seven days out of ten in February in Scotland, but only two days in ten in March, the Scott may speak of snow being likely in February and less likely in March.
But when we speak of the assumptions of an hypothesis we are speaking of something quite different: the Big Bang theory is not, given the current state of astronomical observations, “more likely” than the Steady State theory, nor more probable nor anything like that. Probability has nothing to do with it. It is not as if, out of one hundred cases, the Steady State is found true in thirteen of them and the Big Bang is found true in thirty of them, and that therefore the Steady State model has 13% truth and the Big Bang 30%.
The reason why the Steady State model is not the current standard model is that the Big Bang model fits better with the evidence and makes fewer assumptions. It is easier to believe. It is easier to believe because the cost imposed on our credulity is low. The more assumptions we have to make, the more evidence that does not neatly fit the facts, the higher is the strain on our credulity.
We can call this strain the “assumption cost”.
The AD 3 Hypothetical
As with all discussions between men both of whom regard the other as blind, the conversation so far has proved less than edifying. The problem, as always, deals with unspoken and foundational assumptions or axioms that have not yet been examined, including certain value judgment so ingrained that perhaps they cannot be brought forward for examination.
If the village atheist regards it as axiomatic that there must be a natural explanation for everything, no evidence can be presented that the supernatural exists.
WHAT IS SCIENCE FICTION? The final, complete and exhaustive definition!
Now that I am a world-famous international science fiction author (my sister lives in Australia, and I forced her to buy one of my books, so that is two nations, at least, where my books have sold) a fan letter has come pouring in. Just the other day, I went to the mailbox and got it.
Like all fan letters, this one raises a fascinating question that reaches to the very heart of the science fiction genre, and asks the expert opinion of John C. Wright, world-famous international science fiction author, about the nature and meaning of Science Fiction.
Let us peruse the contents of this thoughtful, nay, this adoring letter. The hero-worship heaped on me, John C. Wright, world-famous international science fiction author, while deserved, may strike some as being overly fulsome, but it is only to be expected from you, the little people, since I bring a such joy into your meaningless and unimportant yet pathetic lives with my immense talents and towering genius.
I think the fan letter is this first letter here in my mail bag:
Dear Sir, having been in arrears for your offtrack betting debts to Harry’s Happy House of Horse Play, the Family has determined to bypass normal legal action and garnishments, and send a gentleman from our collection department, “Gonad-Crusher” Guido Ugnolini to pay a call on you. Mr. Ugnolini has experience in both American and Sicilian correction facilities, multiple murder raps, and a tattoo. We are confident that you will be forthcoming after receiving his attentions.
March 31, 2011
Pragmatic Supernaturalism
My name came up in a discussion over at SfSignal. http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/03/which-book-should-i-read-first/#comments
Apparently a number of readers are willing to admit some of my books are not bad (humbly I thank you!) but they want to warn the unwary that I myself, being a Christian and a conservative, a philosopher, newspaperman, attorney and general man of letters, am therefore reprehensible, any my ideas range from insane to silly.
To those readers who regard me as insane, all I can answer is that the voices in my head say I am not. To those who regard me as silly, all I can do point to the sentence prior to this one, and admit the gravity of the charge.
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