Why An SF Author Would Join The Dark Side

[matt_arnold]

Here is a link to the controversial blog entry by obscure science fiction author John C. Wright. The conversation surrounding his remarks will only involve talking past each other, until we see it as an argument over the three moral dimensions unique to social conservatives: purity, obedience, and loyalty. His hostility will only make sense in that

Comments

[tlatoani]

One point: he has stated that most of his books were written before his psychotic break -- sorry, I mean "religious visions" -- which led to his conversion.

[haroldtanline]

A very interesting way to think of the qualities of moral dimensions. I'd like to add that the typical liberal traits can also become unbalanced, such as feeling excessive self-doubt and indecision, seeing false equivalences, failing to defend oneself, etc; but it seems to me that social conservatism starts as an imbalance, namely the inability to tolerate ambiguity. This defect leads to (or coexists with) lack of empathy, intolerance, and distorted two-valued thinking. A requirement for a one-size-fits-all clear-cut answer seems to be the common denominator. I'm too much of a liberal not to pause and wonder that many conservatives (John C Wright as a handy example) likewise view the liberal perspective as "psychopathological." Could this mean that I'm indulging in projection, rationalization, dissociation, us-vs-them thinking, etc? In my experience these are exactly the types of questions the conservative mind-set disallows as too unsettling.

[le_bebna_kamni]

Apparently the entry has been removed. Understandable, I suppose, if a flame war erupted. Care to give us a summary of what the blog post was about?

However, I think it's sad that with the advent of blogs that a *potentially* good writer would be removed entirely from consideration simply because of a few socially repugnant beliefs expressed a little too openly on his *personal* site. While there is always a fine line between the writer and their books, if what he writes isn't dripping with scathing criticisms of certain value systems or stereotypical characters that we find blatantly offensive -- and if he writes good stories independent of his beliefs -- should we really care that he isn't a kind-hearted, world-oriented, family-values atheist? ;P

[matt_arnold]

Sorry, his deletion of the post is even reflected in Google's cache.

[matt_arnold]

Aha, here it is.