Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)

Posted on September 15, 2017 by Brian Wright

An inquiry into values
by Robert Pirsig

1974, Bantam Books (1984 edition), 380 pages w/afterword

This book was a staple of my college days, not among the Left—the Left in those days seemed to be as incapable of thinking for themselves as what we see in much of the Right today—but among more the more technical, individualistic reader types.

Pirsig, a technical writer for IBM with a genius-level IQ, recounts his journey on a motorcycle (he doesn’t mention the brand; Wikipedia says it’s a 1964 Honda Superhawk CB77) with his boy, Chris. They head out across the high plains thru Montana, then down the Oregon-California coast. Continue reading →

Book Review: Sacred Nonaggression Principle (2010)

Posted on August 18, 2017 by Brian Wright

Second Edition: “Mantra for a Nourishing Planet”
by Brian R. Wright
Reviewed by the author

Reposting the review from 2010, with a forenote. Namely, the general mission of the book remains as it was originally: to create a groundswell of understanding of and passion for the only principle that is worthy of human beings with independent consciousnesses, wanting to live naturally, with others as we choose, in peace and abundance. An idea whose time has definitely come and we must not let go. [All links to the inexpensive Kindle edition for easy download. Except, if you do wish to purchase the paperback, use this link here… as Amazon seems somehow to have got confused in its cataloging and linking.]

Yes, the second edition—or as I prefer to call it, the “second-first” or “kindergarten” edition (SNaP II)—of the book, the Sacred Nonaggression Principle, is finished. In this incarnation of the Sacred Nonaggression Principle (SNaP) I start with things we all learned from kindergarten: don’t hit, don’t steal, don’t lie. These “Kindergarten Rules” are the nonaggression principle (NaP) libertarians have been talking about, like, forever. But the important thing from a book-reception perspective is, “EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS IT.

The progression of ideas in the book is as follows:

- Foreword and Prologue—The audience of the book breaks down into two natural groupings, those who are freedom-receptive and those already committed to the libertarian cause. A society without coercion is possible, and will be achieved as we solve the Big Universal Problem (BUP)—of political-economic tyranny.

- Chapter 1: Kindergarten Rules—Leading off with notions that hail from the simplest tenets humans learn from childhood. Robert Fulghum’s book Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten spells out: 1) Don’t hit. 2) Don’t steal. 3) Be honest. These “Kindergarten Rules” are the nonaggression principle. It makes sense to hold them in the highest regard in all of society.

Continue reading →

Guest Column: I Miss America

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Brian Wright

From the February 16, 2015, post of Mike Adams of Natural News

This just expresses with common sense eloquence how real Americans feel and function… and what they wish for: Yet, I’m not so wistful about it. I believe we’re on the threshold of ‘authentic swing’ consciousness world wide and the best of America will be restored thereby. Will excerpt most of it, but you should go to the original for the full whammy:

I miss the America where surveillance efforts were focused on foreign enemies rather than domestic citizens.
I miss the America where children weren’t routinely kidnapped by hospitals and CPS officials because their parents wanted a second medical opinion or refused to poison their children with chemotherapy.
I miss the America where citizens respected local cops as “peace officers” and local cops existed to “protect and serve.”
I miss the America where veterans were honored and celebrated rather than condemned and medically neglected.
I miss the America where openly pledging your allegiance to the United States Constitution did not result in your name being added to the FBI watch list.
I miss the America that won World War II and beat back a tyrannical fascist government in the name of freedom and democracy. Today, the occupied American government has become the very same tyrannical fascist bully it once sought to defeat.
I miss the America where doctors actually tried to help people prevent disease rather than taking kickbacks from drug companies to put more patients on more medications.
I miss the America where health insurance was affordable… and voluntary.
I miss the America where brain-damaged vaccine fanatics weren’t dominating the news, calling for the arrest and imprisonment of informed parents who wisely choose to avoid injecting their children with vaccine poisons such as mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde.
I miss the America where television news actually resembled the truth and wasn’t just a White House propaganda racket disguised as news.

Continue reading →

Article: The 2004 Free State Project Porcupine Festival

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Brian Wright

Live Free or Stay Put

Here in spring of 2014, a full decade later, I’m reassembling my impressions from diaries I kept of the key foundational Free State event in 2004, the first Porcupine Festival. Reviewing the text, I see that I was not all worked out spiritually—who ever is, even a man into his 50s at the time?—and may have stated harsh or overly judgmental impressions of people. I apologize for this, but I have to own my past mistakes and personal shortcomings. (Heck, in 2004 I still pretty much accepted the Official Big Lie of the 9/11 Attacks!) Many regrets to any and all I may have offended; chances are strong I have favorable views toward you today. Also I feel the text shows at the time, as a lot of other men with high hopes, I was in love (or something like it) with Amanda Phillips, the early heroine and spokesperson for the FSP. So please excuse the boyish gushiness in places. I’m sure she’s put all that behind her. 🙂 Continue reading →

Book Review: Change We Can (Had Better) Believe In (2008)

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Brian Wright

Barack Obama’s plan to renew America’s promise (via Stalinism)
by Barack Obama’s campaign people
Reviewed by Brian Wright

Originally posted on Coffee Coaster 12/22/2008. Someone inclined to favor Democrats over Republicans in general recommended this book to me before the election, saying it provides a “really detailed, incredibly well-thought-out plan of what Barack Obama will do if he wins the presidency—of course with the consent of Congress, consistent with the Constitution, and only if the money exists. That last proviso—if the money exists—is the thin red-ink line I’m hanging my personal hopes on for this administration. Because, omigosh, if the Obamanon[1] executes even half of the objectives outlined in Change We Can Believe In, everyone in the country will need to volunteer their life savings. Continue reading →

Book Review: Kindergarten Rules (SNaP Module #1: 2010)

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Brian Wright

Understanding the first principles of nonaggression
by Brian Wright

The Kindergarten Rules is the first installment of a series of seven that describe and advocate the Sacred Nonaggression Principle (SNaP)—my book advocating that we hold the nonaggression principle (banning the initiation of physical force) as the highest standard in social systems. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Panarchy Papers, Pt. 2

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Brian Wright

Elements of a new Declaration of Independence
by Brian Wright

Link to Panarchy Part 1

In my first Panarchy column, thanks to my discovery of the panarchy concept—i.e., freedom of choice of governments—I feel I finally assembled all the pieces to solve the Big Universal Problem (BUP). The BUP is essentially “tyranny”—the political domination of one group of men over another to the point of enslavement and destruction. My solution has a universal component applying to all humankind and a specific component re: my particular relationship to the American state… which is probably quite a common relationship. Continue reading →