Update: More Readings

So the reading list marches on, left, 2, 3. Left, 2, 3. And this time it's the ever classic Sun Tzu's Art of War, a very short book that amounted to 6 pages of military theory notes from the oldest treatise. And the other was From Aristocracy, to Monarchy, to Democracy by Hans Hermann-Hoppe. I quit reading this book about 30 pages in because it was drivel.

Seriously. Its introduction said it wasn't a Hobbesian argument (that being that the natural state of society in the absence of a monarch is barbarism), but then goes onto argue that mankind is in a constant state of conflict because of scarcity that cannot possibly be solved. Nope, we're not producing enough food to feed 10 billion people, and no the energy crises cannot be solved by renewable energy. But because of this, the natural state of people is barbarism caused by definitely perpetual and irreparable scarcity. So it's Hobbesian, with an extra step. But beyond this, the main crux of it is that in the wake of disputes of property, there needs to be a respected person to settle them (monarch). Never mind that this is in the same vein of argumentation as libertarian's answer to dispute settling. These glaring issues, by the way, proved to me within 30 pages out of the 70 it is, that it wasn't worth my time to read. I would actually get dumber having read this.

'Now Ruby', I hear you think (yes I can read your mind), 'isn't this helpful to the Celestia you want to write? I mean, in so far as disputes go, you'd want the monarch, or the monarch's ministers, to be the arbiter of all disputes, so as to keep the ball in their court.' And I would say, yes it would. But see, I already just answered. If I could point out why it would be in the monarch's interest to be the grand arbiter (Hobbes says this should extend to the very definitions of words, and by his extended logic, reality itself.), then I don't need to read it, I already know it. If I get a headache reading this sort of academic drooling, and get a headache from the mental acrobatics I have to do, and concessions I have to make, to follow their line of thinking, it frankly isn't worth my time.

That said, next on the chopping block is a highly recommended book from a good friend of mine, Clauswitz's On War. I look forward to dissecting all four books of this and taking exhaustively copious notes on it. Unrelated to reading, I have another one-shot in the works, and it's another rework of a speed write, though very loosely connected. I'll simply be including a scene from the original, and attaching it to a completely new story that it can fit in. If that sounds vague, good. I want you to be surprised. I'll see you all then!