Maybe We Need to Embrace Anarchy…

At least, that seems to be the direction we’re drifting toward.

It’s hard to come to any other conclusion when large segments of society have grown comfortable believing they can pick and choose which laws apply to them—obeying the ones they like, ignoring the ones they don’t, and demanding immunity from consequence when reality intrudes.

The participation-trophy mindset has matured into something more dangerous: the belief that discomfort equals injustice, that enforcement equals oppression, and that accountability is optional if you can frame yourself as morally aggrieved.

Laws as Suggestions, Consequences as Optional

We’ve quietly crossed a line where laws are no longer treated as the baseline rules of a shared society, but as personal recommendations—subject to individual approval. If a law aligns with your worldview, it’s righteous. If it doesn’t, it’s illegitimate. And if enforcement follows, the problem isn’t the violation—it’s the authority.

That logic doesn’t lead to reform.
It leads to erosion.

Because once laws become negotiable, they cease to function as laws at all. They become symbols—useful only for signaling, useless for order.

The Comfort of Chaos (Until It Isn’t)

Anarchy always sounds appealing to people who believe they’ll never be on the receiving end of it.

It feels liberating when rules dissolve and restraint disappears—when streets become stages for outrage and destruction is reframed as expression. But chaos has a way of shedding its romance quickly. It doesn’t stay targeted. It doesn’t remain selective. And it certainly doesn’t respect the moral intentions of those who invited it in.

Eventually, the same people who cheered the collapse of norms begin asking why no one is protecting them anymore.

By then, it’s too late.

Enforcement Isn’t the Problem—Inconsistency Is

What’s often missing from the conversation is this: most people don’t object to laws being enforced. They object to laws being enforced unevenly.

When leaders wink at defiance, excuse violations they agree with, and condemn enforcement they find politically inconvenient, they teach the public a dangerous lesson: rules are for suckers, and outrage is a shield.

That doesn’t create justice.
It creates resentment.

And resentment, left unchecked, always finds an outlet.

The Inevitable Endgame

If we truly want to “embrace anarchy,” then we should at least be honest about what that means. It means no referee. No shared rules. No neutral enforcement. Only power—who has it today, and who takes it tomorrow.

And history is brutally consistent on this point: when order collapses, it isn’t the idealists who thrive. It’s the ruthless.

The strong.
The organized.
The violent.

Everyone else learns—too late—why laws existed in the first place.

A Story, Not a Suggestion

These questions sit at the core of Exposed King, where a city pushed to excuse lawlessness discovers that chaos doesn’t stay contained. When people decide the system no longer deserves respect, someone always decides they deserve justice instead.

The novel isn’t an argument for anarchy.
It’s a warning about flirting with it.

Because once a society convinces itself that rules are optional, it shouldn’t be surprised when someone decides they are.

Publication Day: Exposed King

Today is publication day for Exposed King.

This novel has been a long time coming. What began as a crime thriller about a city under pressure evolved into a story that feels uncomfortably close to the world we’re living in now—where trust is fragile, power is protected, and justice is anything but simple.

Exposed King follows NYPD Commissioner James Maguire as New York City spirals. Criminals are turning up dead, fear is spreading, and someone is sending a message that the system can no longer ignore. As the lines between right and wrong blur, Maguire is forced to confront a question with no easy answer:
What happens when justice stops working?

The book is now live on Amazon Kindle, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who’s supported the James Maguire series along the way.

Thank you for reading.
The story is officially yours.

Pick up your copy of Expose King on Amazon today.

— Andrew G. Nelson

Exposed King Is Now Available for Kindle Pre-Order

I’m excited to announce that Exposed King, the next novel in the James Maguire series, is now available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle.

This story follows NYPD Commissioner James Maguire as New York City begins to unravel. Criminals are turning up dead. Fear is spreading. And somewhere in the chaos, someone is making it clear that the system no longer works the way it’s supposed to.

As pressure mounts, Maguire is forced to confront not just a growing body count, but the uncomfortable reality that justice—when filtered through politics, power, and public anger—rarely remains clean.

Exposed King was written as a crime thriller, but at its core it’s a question:
What happens when trust in the system collapses, and people decide the rules no longer apply?

If you enjoy gritty NYPD procedurals, morally complex characters, and stories that feel uncomfortably close to the real world, this one was written for you.

The Kindle edition is now live for pre-order on Amazon, with release coming soon.

Thank you to everyone who’s followed the James Maguire series so far. I can’t wait to put this one in your hands.

— Andrew G. Nelson

Cover Reveal: EXPOSED KING

Today, I’m excited to officially reveal the cover for Exposed King, the next James Maguire novel.

I didn’t set out to write a book that mirrored the moment we’re living in—but sometimes fiction gets there first. Exposed King explores what happens when justice fractures, trust collapses, and a city is pushed to the edge. Today, I’m revealing the cover.

From the beginning, this story has been about pressure—on a city, on the justice system, and on the people sworn to uphold it. The cover reflects that tension: a city on edge, authority under siege, and a single figure standing at the center of it all.

Exposed King asks a simple but uncomfortable question: What happens when the system stops working—and people decide to take justice into their own hands?

This book was written before many of the events we’re witnessing now, but like the best crime fiction, it explores forces that never really go away: power, anger, corruption, and the consequences of pushing society too far.

The story is coming soon.
And so is the reckoning.

The System Isn’t Broken — It’s Working as Designed

Recent events have once again exposed a dangerous game being played by those in power. A familiar pattern repeats itself: politicians pander to a base they know will not question narratives, will not dig into history, and will not examine the mechanics of government. Emotion is rewarded. Outrage is amplified. Nuance is punished.

And the consequences are never borne by the people making the speeches.

Laws, Blame, and Convenient Amnesia

Here’s an uncomfortable truth that rarely gets said plainly enough: Politicians write the laws. Law enforcement enforces them.

The legislative branch creates policy. The executive branch carries it out. That division is foundational to how our system is supposed to function. But when laws become politically inconvenient—when enforcement generates backlash—the same politicians who authored those laws suddenly develop amnesia.

Instead of revisiting bad policy or owning the consequences of their votes, they deflect. They point to “rogue officers.” They vilify the very people tasked with enforcing statutes that lawmakers themselves passed, funded, and defended.

It’s a neat trick: create the problem, then redirect the anger toward the most visible uniform in the room.

Power Preserved, Lives Spent

At the local level, this dynamic becomes even more dangerous. City councils, mayors, and prosecutors gin up public anger, knowing full well they will never stand between that anger and its consequences. They speak recklessly from behind microphones while officers are sent into the streets to absorb the fallout.

Those officers are not policymakers. They are employees—hired to do a job, bound by oath, procedure, and law. Yet they find themselves caught in the crosshairs: politically expendable, publicly condemned, and personally threatened for doing precisely what they were ordered to do.

Power is preserved. Lives are risked. And the gap between rhetoric and reality grows wider.

Selective Memory and Political Shape-Shifting

What makes this moment especially corrosive is the sheer audacity of the flip-flopping.

We are told today that certain policies are “fascist” or “authoritarian,” despite being openly supported—sometimes enthusiastically—by the very same political figures in previous years. Calls for stricter immigration enforcement once framed as pragmatic governance are now recast as moral atrocities. Policies once defended as necessary are retroactively condemned when they become politically inconvenient.

We are asked to believe two contradictory things at once: that enforcement is tyranny, and that the people who enforced it before were heroes.

This isn’t moral growth. It’s political shape-shifting.

When Law Enforcement Becomes the Enemy

There is a line—an old one, and a dangerous one—that societies cross when law enforcement is successfully reframed as “the enemy of the people.” When that happens, anarchy doesn’t arrive all at once. It creeps in slowly, justified as righteous anger, tolerated as political expression, excused as necessary pressure.

But here is the part no one in the crowd is meant to think about:

Once protests outlive their usefulness…
Once the anger reaches critical mass…
Once it threatens the same politicians who encouraged it…

The switch flips.

The same law enforcement once vilified becomes indispensable again. The same laws once condemned are suddenly enforced with urgency. And the same people who were cheered on in the streets find themselves facing the full weight of the system they were told no longer applied.

History is very clear on this point.

Why I Wrote Exposed King

These themes sit at the heart of my upcoming novel, Exposed King. What begins as a crime story quickly becomes something more unsettling: a portrait of a city where politics paralyze justice, where leaders hide behind ideology, and where the consequences of that cowardice begin to surface in blood.

The book isn’t an endorsement of chaos or vigilantism. It’s a warning about trajectories—about what happens when leaders stop governing and start posturing, when enforcement becomes a political liability instead of a civic necessity, and when responsibility is endlessly deferred.

Because when the system teaches people that laws are optional, enforcement is immoral, and accountability is selective, it shouldn’t be surprised when someone decides the rules no longer matter.

And by then, it’s already too late.