John C. Wright's Blog, page 198

Bragging Rights!

Locus released its 2009 Recommended Reading List .

I was pleased to see my name appearing twice on this list! One entry for ISLANDIA by Austin Tappan Wright; and one for "Terror in the Fourth Dimension" by Farnsworth Wright. Congratulations to me!

Just kidding. They actually gave a tip of the hat to "The Far End of History" (The New Space Opera 2); and to "Twilight of the Gods" (Federations)

I was also pleased to see these anthologies recommended (no doubt despite rather than because of, if ...

Which Perfect World is Best?

In a recent discussion in this space was examined the various possible sources for the authority and legitimacy that separates lawful princes and republics (whom we should rightly obey) from unlawful and illegitimate princes and republics, rightly called tyrannies and totalitarianisms (whom we should take up arms against, and rightly die a hero’s death defying, or a martyr’s disobeying).

The conversation, as expected, foundered on the rocks at low intellectual tide, since the contrary partie...

Progress Report

9000 words so far just today. Not bad.

My favorite passage:

"... One day science will fix things, so this part of us, this vicious part, will be caged up. The Beast. Maybe we can make a child without the gene for evil, maybe we can make a thinking machine without the subroutine for hate. Maybe."

"We have the genes and routines now," she said. "The cure for hate is forgiveness. The cure for sorrow is thankfulness. Even a child can learn these two: no grand scheme of human eugenics to produce th...

Anarchy, State, Utopia, a final comment

Well, someone answered the right answer to the hypothetical, which is that there cannot possibly be a right answer to any question about the legality of anarchy.

Anarchy is an absence of sovereign law. If there is no supreme law of the land, there is no subordinate law. If there is no supreme nor subordinate law, then there is no law at all, and so legal scheme for how the laws in an anarchist commonwealth should be arranged is mere paradox. If it is anarchist, there is no commonwealth. The q...

The Correct Answers to the Hypothetical

Here are the professors notes. Consult The Case of the Thorns, Y.B. 6 Edw. 4, 7, pl. 18 (1466) for the relevant law.


1. Does Thurible Sloop have a right to recover the price of his bus ticket from the tourguide company, on the ground that Ironhand St. James the Moorslayer prevented the busload of tourists from entering the grounds of the Mosque?

Ironhand was pursuing a police investigation (as distinguished from Gumbo, who was merely enforcing an injunction in a nuisa...

A hypothetical

Part of an ongoing discussion about libertarianism, anarchy, states, and Utopias.

A reader with the chilling name of Iceberg 18 writes: "There is no compelling evidence (in my mind) that suggests that a monopoly provider of justice is better than justice provided by competing private defense agencies."

He asks for evidence, but I assume he means he wants to hear an argument, since there is no question of fact in dispute here, only a question of law and logic.

How would a subscription service ...

Progress Report -- Acriter et Fideliter

9700 words so far this week, and its only wednesday. But I promised I would go to be early today, and its 2451 hours. I grimace in despair.

Free sample! I had to put the Swiss Guard in my books. Damn, but I love those guys. Tough as nails, sharp dressers, guard the Pope.

* * *When they came to the end of the carpet, the flower-festooned electric car was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was Yorvel was looking plump and ridiculous in the Gold-Purple-Scarlet livery of the Pope's Swiss Guard, p...

Liberty, Piracy, Police Power -- or -- Dogs, Wolves, and Feral Dogs

I thought this merited its own post. It is a comment in the midst of a discussion about legitimate versus illegitimate uses of force. Mr. Kinsella maintains, with admirable consistency, that only self-defense or retaliation legitimizes the use of force, and says that all states howsoever constituted must and do use force beyond this limit (as when they collect taxes), and concludes that ergo no state is legitimate. My comment is as follows:

A libertarian is someone who cannot tell the differen...

The Reason Why I am Not an Anarchist

Montechristo writes: 

Do you want to see someone who came to the exact opposite political view as yours seems to be while following the same spiritual/philosophical path? Read Joeseph Sobran's essay: The Reluctant Anarchist

My comment: 

I find the article of only limited interest, not because it is not well written, nor because the gentleman does not seem thoughtful, but only because in my youth I encountered these thoughts and arguments before, and found answers that seem to me not only clear,...

One Reason Why I am No Longer a Libertarian

I suppose I can still be mistaken for a libertarian in a dim light, and I would certainly be proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with them against the various outrageous encroachments of our now-certifiably-insane federal government (the mere fact that the political classes are not even discussing abolishing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, nor overturning the laws that forced banks at gunpoint to make bad loans to insolvent borrowers, but instead discuss sovietizing the banking, motorcar, and med...