You can usually figure out a lot about someone by what they write about. A fiction writer will still push a particular worldview through to the reader, despite the fictional universe being filled with elves, space aliens, or horny housewives. While it is much subtler than a non-fiction work, you can usually pick up on a few things. None of it necessarily has to be political either.
- National security is the chief cause of national insecurity – This law is obviously a paradox, but it seems to be more and more true as time passes. In the post-9/11 America, it seems to be a blasphemy in some circles to suggest that maybe the efforts of our Federal government won’t work all that well. The latest problem is that a terrorist tried to blow up a plane with specially designed underwear (probably from a fashion designer in France). The response from our glorious leaders is to push full-body scanners, which really display our naked bodies to a bunch of minimum wage government workers. Too bad it won’t pick up on the underwear bombs. In any case, this law is perfectly illustrated in the airports and in the National Botanical Garden where armed guards search you to make sure you don’t blow up a bunch of trees.
- Accurate communication is possible only in a non-punishing situation – Everyone lies to a degree in their lifetime. Usually these lies are done in the face of possible punishment from a superior or government agent. You will lie to your boss if you think it is necessary to keep your job. You will lie to the police if you have something to hide, although a better option is to keep your mouth shut in that scenario. Everyone in government office lies to suck up to their superiors and keep their jobs. The largest example was George Tenet’s declaration to George W. Bush that Iraq has stockpiles of WMDs. Thomas Sowell said that when he worked in the Department of Labor in the 1950s, he would have to “modify” his findings to fit the worldview of whoever was in charge. The truth is, you can only have truthful conversation when you are on equal ground with the other person. Which is probably why I won’t get promoted too much and may earn the ire and disdain of my bosses because I refuse to lie to them.
- An honest politician is a national calamity – Any politician that gets into office on a platform of “fixing” things or giving you money is much more dangerous than one who accepts bribes on a regular basis. This is probably just what C.S. Lewis said about living under robber barons versus moral busybodies. All the great crimes against humanity in the past century were committed with the motive of altruism and not because they were necessarily sociopaths. Usually sociopaths don’t make it into the upper echelons of power without at least pretending to care about they people they seek power over.
So those are Celine’s laws and I firmly believe that they are very relevant today and in the real world as much as they were in the 1960s and 1970s in a highly fictional universe made up by a couple of writers for Playboy magazine. The trick then is getting many of the devoted fiscal conservatives to understand these laws and start applying them to their own analysis of government and people.