Agreed...but this is in the context of a discussion of Tolkien's work. Tolkien veers between a benign anarchism (The Shire) and divinely-appointed or at least divinely-sanctioned kings. It seems then that "good government" is holy or ideal government--government by the best (in the sense of "most moral") people.<br>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 3:15 PM, Jerry Friedman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jerry_friedman@yahoo.com">jerry_friedman@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div class="im"><br>--- On Thu, 3/19/09, <a href="mailto:brunians@brunians.org">brunians@brunians.org</a> <<a href="mailto:brunians@brunians.org">brunians@brunians.org</a>> wrote:<br>> There's another aspect of Gene Wolfe's politics<br>
> which is mentioned<br>> prominently in many of his stories, and that is his intense<br>> distrust of government.<br>...<br><br></div>
<div class="im">> I'd like to solicit a discussion of this particular<br>> aspect of his work.<br></div>...<br><br>I haven't seen any mention yet of "The Best Introduction to<br>the Mountains", where Wolfe says the code of conduct he<br>
learned in his childhood included, "Legitimate authority<br>was to be obeyed without shirking and without question.<br>Mere strength (the corrupt coercion Washington calls<br>/power/ and Chicago /clout/) was to be defied." So maybe<br>
another way of saying he distrusts government would be that<br>he thinks most government is mere strength, but he thinks<br>good government can exist and he'd be happy to trust an<br>example of it.<br><br><a href="http://home.clara.net/andywrobertson/wolfemountains.html" target="_blank">http://home.clara.net/andywrobertson/wolfemountains.html</a><br>
<font color="#888888"><br>Jerry Friedman<br></font>
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