Friday, June 27, 2008

In the devil's funhouse, only the devil has fun.

Ego is a snare and a delusion. But worse is its power to distort and pervert. A gun is a physical thing. A simple machine for making its bearer lethal. The machine has no intention. The naked ape has no lethality. The combination of the two conjures and alters, borrows from the depths of hell, a power the ego desperately craves but the mind is not competant to use.

Questions of safety and protection seen only through the lens of self, the perspective republicans exploit well, are seen backwards. No amount of rationally weighed factual information counters the view in that sick fun house mirror image of security that the presence of a weapon you think of as your tool makes you safer.

5 comments:

The Editor said...

Yes, but... It sounds a bit like "we'd like to disarm you so that you won't harm yourself."

In Vietnam, it was "we had to kill the villagers in order to liberate them."

My point? Being a paranoid doomsayer, I can see 'society' collapsing real soon. When that happens, I want the freedom to own a gun for self defence.

I'm not a proponent of gun control, I'm a proponent of better education leading to a saner society. Sane people don't mis-use guns. maybe psych-testing and mental health prerequisites for gun licenses is a better way to go.

Again, it just punishes the majority for the crimes of the few.

Here in Australia we've had pretty strict gun control for about ten years, and gun related crime has mushroomed, and the suicide rate has sky-rocketed, despite the difficulty in legally obtaining guns.

I think the Harvard thing is flimsy.

As a corollary to the "saner society" agenda, I would argue that in a saner society, fewer people would choose to own guns anyway.

Psych-test gun owners (and non gun owners) to see if there is something there.

GreenSmile said...

Gerry;
I had many a choice of material to link to in support of the contention that the mere presence of guns correlates with higher death rates due to being at the wrong end of a gun. We could probably have an informative exchange on data sources, crime and emergency room statistics and the methods for winnowing conclusions from same but we are both tired old farts who might have better things to do. [Well, I am tired right now]

I'd give better than even odds that the different outcomes are cultural. The "fact" that sticks in my memory is that Canadians possess a similarly high number of personal fire arms per capita to the arsenal of the "typical" US household...yet have lower rates for gun crime and accidental gun deaths. It is, in a word, different "cultures" around gun use and responsibility that may account for the different stats. Likewise, Australians on the whole live closer in years and distance to their frontier times and have yet to lose completely the proper respect for the firearm as a tool with a very particular use.

I owned a 30-06 when I was 12. At that time is was legal to buy guns by mail. My dad was an NRA life member and safety instructor. We got the drill on gun safety early and often...and then we all went hunting. [I agree with you and see the matter as analogous to car ownership: screen, train, require a test before licensing to operate, register the car, retest the operator at regular intervals...and the result is, we kill similar numbers of people by bad driving to the deaths by gun though driving is nearly universal.]

I have been disappointed by the way Obama has been creeping toward the political center with each new statement. But when he made nothing out of the supreme court overturning the gun ban in Washington DC, a city rife with handgun violence, I did not post a denunciation. [His acquiescence to spying on the other hand deserves a slap.]

I don't think the externalities of new or different rules will change the fundamental insanity of people nor the selfish fondness with which some will latch onto a gun to settle a problem they are incapable of fixing by civil means. It is that insanity I address.

The Editor said...

I agree the gun thing is a great big complex problem.

I still want the option to own a gun legally (which has been taken away from me by our gun laws). Luckily, by the time society disintegrates, I will have acquired one by hook or by crook.

I still say bad stuff is coming...

cul said...

real bad stuff is coming...don't get any on ya.

cul said...

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http://deeperwants.com/ratboys_anvil_2/