Dear Instapundit Glenn Reynolds,
If “politics is downstream from culture,” as a wise man once said, where does one put new innovations and business breakthroughs? Could technology and entrepreneurship be more important and influential than both culture and politics?
So, just over four years ago, November 12, 2013, you might recall that I published a post at PJ Lifestyle about you and your influence on my thinking, “6 Ways to Change the World Glenn Reynolds-Style.” I advocated for others to learn from you as I had:
1. Read Instapundit, the best news aggregation blog.
2. Implement an Army of Davids-style strategy in your life
3. Learn to master the op/ed column, and start by reading Glenn’s USA Today columns each week
4. Prepare for the Pop of the Higher Education Bubble
5. Seek Deep Discussion on Instavision
6. Optimistic Futurism!
This last point I’ll quote in full:
Glenn is both a source of practical knowledge and an emotional inspiration. Infused throughout Glenn’s media output is an upbeat picture of the future. Perhaps a part of this is just how much he’s imagined the future and seen much of it come to pass over the last decades. The Army of Davids is growing and Moore’s Law applies to our weapons too. As technology continues to grow twice as powerful and half as expensive, human beings will have more and more power to free themselves and defend their families and communities from all manner of Goliaths.
Glenn, when I left PJ in 2015 and began acquiring and editing novels for Liberty Island, I already had an idea of what kinds of science fiction authors I hoped to find: fellow capitalist, libertarian, and entrepreneurial thinkers who dared to imagine the near-future and the impact of transformative technologies. I wanted to find writers who you especially would enjoy. And indeed, in J.P. Medved, author of Justice, Inc., I discovered all that and more.
In his smart post here at Liberty Island, “Killing Dictators for Fun and Profit: How the Private Sector does Foreign Intervention Better Than the Government” J.P. lays out his belief that the free market can do a much better job at securing societies and fighting tyranny than the federal government or United Nations:
The book starts with a bang as Justice, Inc. CEO and founder Eric Ikenna leads an attack against a brutal Islamist dictator. This bold, courageous act will set off a wave of consequences and enemies who Eric will have to battle the rest of the book. The prologue and first chapter can be read here:
Justice, Inc : His Business is Revolution. And Business Is Good.
Glenn, a big part of why I’m so excited about J.P.’s series (we’re aiming to release book 2 in Autumn), is that it’s such a fun, confident expression of a fusion of both Libertarianism and hawkish foreign policy. For decades the Libertarian movement has been most consequentially divided between between Murray Rothbard and Ron Paul-inspired doves who deny the threat of tyrannical governments and Islamist movements versus small government advocates who see the imminent danger and instead embrace Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” ethos. For years now I’ve been “in the trenches” of this ideological fight, loudly opposing and condemning libertarians on the other side of this divide. For my most recent and most potent attack see “Three reasons why I hate the Old Right (and all decent people should, too): A helpful primer for Canadians, Part IV” published while I was a contributor to Rebel Media from 2015-2016.
But J.P. came up with a better idea than just fighting this old battle. What he dramatizes is more than the triumph of Hawkish Libertarianism but rather a transcendence and reconciliation of both ideological camps. Here is the path forward that both sides are seeking — both a dramatic decrease of responsibility and budget for the military and federal government, and a more effective, faster, better-targeted response to defeat Islamist and tyrannical threats.
Really, though, as with most Liberty Island releases, these themes and ideas lie more in the background and subtext. J.P. rightfully places storytelling above ideological indoctrination. At heart Justice Inc. is a page-turning, sci-fi, action-thriller that just about any reader could enjoy solely on the basis of its engaging characters, high energy action scenes, and creative technological imaginings. Here’s an excerpt from a fight scene later in the book:
J.P. Medved’s #thriller #novel Justice Inc is filled with exciting action sequences like this one from page 134.
Justice Inc. is available on Amazon in paperback here and e-book here.
All the best to you and your family,
David Swindle
P.S. J.P. isn’t the only author I’ve been working with who’s developing a wildly inventive, near-future sci-fi series. Another one with a big project I’m editing is a futurist non-fiction author we’ve both written admiringly about who is revising his fiction debut now… More on that soon…
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