The Philosophy of Violence

My son's been dealing with a bully lately. He's been getting pestered, pushed, followed, and called a pussy for not doing anything about it. He told me he hasn't fought back because he doesn't want to get into trouble.

Part of the problem is this nonsense they teach in public schools, that "violence is never the solution." Sure it is. That's why we have wars. Sometimes a little violence is what it takes to settle a dispute. However, violence should never be your first solution.

A rational man never initiates physical force. However, a rational man may respond to physical force with physical force because allowing it to happen is essentially sanctioning its use by its wielder.

Another part of the problem is that we like the bad guys. Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Hannibal, The Blacklist… the list goes on and on. We could do the same with hip hop music. Hollywood desperately wants us to cheer for the villain, which means to cheer for the lack of morality, to take sides in fights that aren't our own in conflicts where there are no good guys.

Of course, every well-written villain can be said to be the hero of their own story. But just because someone feels like they're right, does that mean they're objectively right? Can there be any such thing as objective good or evil?

Take Thanos from the MCU. He's fascinating as a character. A believer in "the ends justify the means," he's willing to kill anyone to see his vision come to life, just like any good statist. One of the most interesting aspects of his character was when he destroyed the Infinity Stones using their own power in order to remove the temptation of further use. This is something no good statist would do; statists never give up power willingly.

There were two major issues with his plan, though. First, he used force rather than reason because his idea was not good enough to be voluntary. Good ideas never have to be mandatory (I'm looking at you, taxes!). Secondly, he said it would be random and impartial, but neither he, nor his daughters, nor any of his followers from the Black Order got snapped away. Like any tyrant, it was "rules for thee, but not for me."

We have a real problem if villain worship is the best we can do. Yeah, we'd like to see the bad guy change his mind and get some kind of redemption arc where they make up for their past. Maybe this is why I love anti-heroes but not villains? Sometimes the hero can be lame and boring, but sometimes we can cheer for people who take matters into their own hands because the government, which only exists to protect its people from the use of unjustified force, is too inept to do so. The Punisher, killing mafia members, pedophiles, and terrorists, all of whom hurt innocent people. Batman, using his brains and wealth to do the same. Geralt from The Witcher. Good anti-heroes frequently use violence to achieve noble goals. This is not the same as believing the ends justify the means like Thanos. The Punisher would never kill innocent people getting in the way of his goals. Ghost Rider's penance stare only affects the guilty. Thanos? He's pure villain. His snap saw no difference between child and child molester.

I told my son to tell his bully verbally that he wouldn't put up with his physical abuse anymore; to go somewhere else if it starts again; and to knock the kid's teeth out if he persists. Good people shouldn't cheer for the bad guy, but they also shouldn't feel guilty for defending themselves and others from the world's a-holes.

-Ellis Novak

2025-05-04

The Free Market Rules All... Even Fiction

The free market is a pretty simple concept to grasp, and it's almost impossible to refute by those who understand it. It makes you wonder, then, why so many people try to so hard to make money while denouncing the free market. Let's lay out a few principles.

1 - The market wants what the market wants. If the market wants comics full of busty women and masculine men, they will buy those books. If they want comics full of effeminate men and potato-shaped girls, they'll buy those books. If at any time you want to see what the market enjoys, you simply have to look at what the market is buying. I'm talking about actual sales to actual customers; books bought by stores or distributors that wind up sitting unsold on the shelves do not count as sales.

2 - If you demand the market buy something it doesn't want, and if you engage in name-calling or social shaming to try to force these sales, you will see backlash from potential customers and the burning of whatever good will you've previously built. To put it another way, if the market wasn't convinced to buy your product when they liked you, they certainly aren't going to buy it when you're acting like an asshole.

3 - Everyone's work has a particular value set by the market. If you're demanding a level of payment for producing a product that doesn't sell well, expect one of two things to happen: the people paying you will eventually get tired of losing money and will start paying you less for the same work; or, the people paying you will keep paying you the same but will demand you produce a product that sells.

If you think about these basic truths, you'll see why a company that appears to hate its core fan base, replacing their demographic with minorities instead of creating new minority characters, should not be charging much for the swill they produce. If your future is tied up with a company that does this, whatever your particular skill set or demographic checklist looks like, I recommend you have something ready to go on the side. It isn't hard to see the writing on the wall, and that writing says the mainstream comics industry is in real trouble. They're bleeding out, and it might be fatal. But that brings me to a fourth point.

4 - The market abhors a vacuum. Look at it as a supply/demand issue. Just because the mainstream comics industry are crapping on the fans doesn't mean the fans' demand for comics is fading. This is why crowdfunding is becoming such an important part of the indie comics industry. The market's demand isn't just for comics. The demand is for GOOD comics. The mainstream comic industry is supplying comics, but that doesn't match the category of the demand.

The bottom line: anyone who wants to create comics based on any topic should be free to do so, but the market is the ultimate arbiter of success or failure. If you create something nobody wants, it's probably not because the market if full of evil racist xenophobic gay-hating white supremacists. It's probably because you made a garbage product, and you don't like the market reacting to it by turning elsewhere.

-Ellis Novak

2025-04-14

What Do You Believe?

I mentioned a few days ago that I'd recently finished A Game of Thrones and came away disappointed. I've never watched the show but I was aware that it was a global phenomenon and that it was based on a book, which I think was the first installment of a longer series.

The reason I didn't like the book was because it felt much like a soap opera set in a less-interesting version of Middle Earth, sort of a store-brand fantasy realm. There were a few different belief systems (people worshiping different gods) and dragons were a real thing that used to exist and might again do so in a future book. Whatever. But there was no good vs. evil, no right vs. wrong. It was all status quo. Everybody either wanted to control the kingdom or wanted to support someone who wanted to control the kingdom. The entire conflict was less like an actual story with a moral or even a point, and more like watching a football game where the fans start rioting. Instead of making a point about the selling of a teenager's virginity, or slavery, or indentured servitude, the author just asks the reader to accept it and partake in the spectacle.

Essentially, the whole book revolves around collectivism. Nobody's life has value beyond whatever they can provide to their side of the conflict and so they can be disposed of by those in power, or at least by whoever the person has pledged themselves to. This isn't the problem, because this happens in real life all the time. The problem is that this story is very flat. Nobody wants to change the system, nobody rebels against the killing and the destruction. It's got the depth of an amusement park ride, and the reader is supposed to be so captivated by the death and the incest and the intrigue that they don't say anything and just ask for more.

I'm not saying the author, George R. R. Martin, is a bad writer. If success is measured in dollars, certainly he's one of the best. But maybe I'm spoiled. I've read some excellent literature, such as 1984, East of Eden, The Fountainhead, and so many others. Maybe my standards are too high and I should just shut up and enjoy the show. The same could be said about the Twilight series, or Fifth Shades of Gray, or the Hawk Tuah girl's podcast.

I'm posting this on Ayn Rand's birthday. Here's a quote:

"The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others."

In other news, I just finished Watership Down, which was EXCELLENT. Maybe I'll post about it soon.

Go out and read something.

-Ellis Novak

2025-04-02