A tall handsome stranger walks into the bar. He looks around curiously, but with an air of distant recognition, like 'oh yeah, this place'.

Eventually he makes his way around to Valanda's sign.

He reads it. He reads it again.

The question he settles on is, "What's 'command magic'?"

"Some people from my world have the ability to magically prevent people from taking actions."

"Well, that sounds obnoxious. And what do you mean about morality in governance?"

"Okay, so, you know how a group of people can keep the peace by agreeing to enforce certain rules? You can go even farther and work toward each other's goals informally, as a series of favors, and - this is the coolest part - you don’t have to make sure you’re getting a good deal with any one person because someone else will probably let you take advantage of them!"

"I think you and I might think about governance very differently. Or I'm missing something. Or both."

"How do you think about governance?"

"Ruling the world is a much tougher job than I thought when I was your age—I guess this is Milliways and you might be older than you look—when I was a teenager, at any rate. But just because it's hard doesn't mean that it would be better to stop. Though I've definitely turned over all the day-to-day stuff to people who are better at it than I am."

"...That sounds really likely unless you’re omnimalevolent. My world also has a single government. But, um... since no one in the imperial government cares if people are happy, it’s only good for people's happiness kind of accidentally, and maybe it could make people even happier if anyone involved wanted to."

"...huh. Well, I have no idea how to convince people to want other people to be happy. I just want my people to be happy because... they're my people. Or, I guess happy among lots of other things, like 'safe' and so on, there's ways to be happy that end up making people worse off. But like, generally as happy and safe and free and okay as I can figure out how to make them. ...this line of conversation has made me sound way too benevolent and now I want to list a bunch of my flaws but I'm not sure how to without going too far the other way."

"Well, I guess it would have to come in degrees, wouldn’t it? I'm a governor at home and I care about morality but I don’t know how that means I should act as a governor sometimes. It’s hard figuring it out. I guess if you don’t know other moral people you’ve probably noticed that."

"I would actually tend to think of most people I meet as more moral than me, not less." He thinks about that for a second and then amends, "Maybe not most people I meet. I meet a lot of shitty people. But, say, most people who work in my government."

"...Well, have any of them written any good books about governing morally?"

"...I think the normal assumption where I'm from is that governments are supposed to make people better off. I guess that might only be the normal assumption because I've been up there in charge for the last five thousand years making it, but it still is. So people don't write books about it from the perspective that 'governing morally' is a specific weird thing you might consider doing but probably aren't already, because—that's not the situation they're in. They do write books about how to govern, I'm pretty sure, though I haven't read any because reading involves too much sitting still for my taste. But I don't know if they'll be the kind of book you're looking for because I think they're... asking different questions than you seem to be."

"What kinds of questions are they asking?"

"Well, I haven't read the books. But - it'll be things like 'how do you figure out which policies do the things you want and which policies look like they're going to but then don't', or 'how do you make sure the people you trust with your money are only stealing normal, manageable amounts of it and not massive catastrophic amounts', that probably aren't about governing morally even though they're... about governing, and the governing is supposed to be making people better off."

"We do have some books about that already, but I guess I can’t rule out that those might be helpful anyway."

"Could be! And for all I know somebody might have written a book about why it's a good idea to make people better off. Though I'm not even sure, like... what does your government think of itself as aiming for? If 'making people better off' isn't it?"

"Convincing the electorate to vote for them, giving kickbacks to their personal factions - it's a lot like making people better off, because those are people, and the government makes them better off, but they're only the people who are allowed to vote, so slaves who don't have any say in who's in charge don't really end up with anyone looking out for them. And if there's an expensive way to make everyone better off, but the voters haven't noticed it yet, they might not end up bothering. Just - it's sort of like if the government were an uncooperative slave, or a badly designed spell, that's sort of aiming to make people better off but not really."

"...I might understand 'uncooperative slave' differently than you because in my world there isn't magic to make people obey other people. But I think I get the picture, overall."

"Probably for the best from a moral perspective. I have a ward against command magic and if it means someone who might have wanted to enslave me just kills me instead that's exactly how I intended it to work."

"Pretty fair of you. We do still have slavery but it's not magically enforced."

"I’ve been trying to come up with alternatives but it’s hard, but we could compare notes."

"What are you using slavery for that you need alternatives to?"

"We use slavery to keep people who can’t follow the law on their own out of other people’s way. It’s absolutely horrible for them but - you know the magic that does it? It can make you stop breathing or keep you from talking or from literally any action, and people are born with it. We’re additionally kind of - leaning on it as part of being polite to people who want to withdraw from society, possibly in the company of an opposite-sex partner. And of course slave labor is a big part of some industries like chemical synthesis and medical research, and the proceeds from auctions fund public works in areas like public health. And some people who like hurting people can vote and most people, unlike me, can’t just use someone who's just that desperate for their touch."