Re: Alfas and Rosie (controversial)

[David Ziglin <davidz@domain.elided>]

I believe in freedom and liberty up to the point where it clearly and
directly harms others who cannot escape that harm - easy to say.

I have no definitive or absolute answers to the gun obssession controversy
we have simply let slip - the media's choice in part and in large part
because of a fear of special interest groups - up until the "last straw" in
Littleton.

I am not a gun owner, am not atall drawn to guns, and believe that there
are a great many people out there of all ages who are deeply and darkly
obssessed with guns.  Their obssession - an addiction really ( *really* ) -
goes well beyond interest or personal protection or hunting.  Rather, it is
a twisted fascination and sickness that we commonly consider a psychic
abnormality if it were nearly any other fetish in question.  To deny that
this weird hyper gun love exists widely in our society is to me the very
height and definition of denial and subjectivism.

( As a *very simple* example : As a high school teacher, fall has always
been the most awful time of year for me even though it is my favorite
season.  It is that time when astoundingly naive and self deluded parents
allow and encourage their children to "go hunting."  The reality and
aftermath of our childrens' after school and weekend "hunting" is a daily
and general heated and sick classroom and hallway recapitulation of the
various animals that got "blown to shit" the previous day.  Students
perpetually use "air guns" of all kinds in the clasroom; their hands and
arms are loaded and ready for action at any instigation.  A reference to a
gun in a short story is all that is needed for pantamine gun fire.  My
students cared not whit what they killed while "hunting" just so it was
dead at the end and preferably in a thousand bloody pieces.  Of course, of
course, of course - "not my kid!!  I taught MY kid to be responsible.  MY
kid has taken an NRA gun safety course."

One thing I have learned with profound emphasis is that parents always
stupidly believe that it is someone else's kid who is the bad guy while
their kid "knows better" and " doesn't lie." : "We have this
understanding." )


However, while guns have the above association for me ( my wife and I have
come within inches of stray bullets from "hunters" several times ), I
cannot remove myself from some simple truths : guns don't kill people,
trench coats don't kill people, pornography does not cause rape, the
media's home videos of monster tornadoes do no cause houses to implode,
burning flags do not bring down governments or squelch freedom, creationism
is not science, gun safety courses do not automatically result in humane
shooters,  masturbation does not cause hairy palms and sexual deveviance,
nontheists and humanists do not cause immorality, Liberals are notbringing
down our society as Newt recently claimed again, and the military does not
cause wars.

And so, the Rosies of the world need to focus their attention not so much
on effect as cause.  This USA society of ours does not think well; thinking
is not encouraged in our schools as a result of public insistance and fear
of rationality.  Cause and effect are repeatedly confused; relationships
and associations are constantly pointed out where there in fact are none -
"NRA literature was found in the killer's apartment."  And so was a case of
Pepsi Cola.  Perhaps we should get Rosie off the air as a solution to
simplistic thinking and manipulation of the naive.

For those who are worried about the Rosies of the world I suggest that they
put their efforts into admitting and realizing first of all that there are
in fact lots and lots of "gun nuts" in our society, that the image of the
clean cut defender of the constitution who is "forced" to own guns and is
not otherwise drawn to them is a myth, a self serving delusion.  I suggest
that these sincere people ask themselves why so very many predictable
behaviors associated with violence is so common, so rampant among the gun
obssessed.  These are complicated questions and can only provoke
complicated answers; however, to deny these valid associations will only
encourage those who - metaphorivcally - hope to reduce hit and run
accidents by outlawing the Lotus Elise in the USA.

I support the idea of boycots; however, I am skeptical of them nontheless.
It is a monitary arm twisting that has no effect on rationality.  Recall
the Fundamantalist Christians who caused Proctor and Gamble to abandon
their historic logo as a result of their absurd irrationality.  Will those
of you out there who are pro-choice or respect the constitutional right to
a free choice stop going to Wal-Mart as well as K-Mart because they have
refused to sell the "morning after" pill?  It seems to me that ultimately,
the only real cure to our problems is education, not indoctrination but
education.  Who is ready for it?

To boycot K-Mart or any of the products advertised on Rosie's network is a
monumental task.  Obviously, the corporate connections between products is
staggering.  While you might refuse to by brand X and instead buy brand Y,
you are likely as well to be buying a product owned by the same people.
Good luck on that.

Finally, as metaphor again, if all of the students and staff of Columbine
High School ( whose tag is "The Rebels" by the way ) were to have been
armed, the two killers would have been "taken down" quickly and the only
injured would have been from "friendly fire."  Now, really, is that a
solution?  Is boycotting Rosie a solution or a reaction?  If the gun lovers
of this society want to preserve their *supposed* constitutonal right to
bear arms they might first admit that it is in actual fact only supposed;
they will have to face the reality of guns and our society and the *true*
meaning of the second amendment much more depthfully and very very much
more honestly.

A rhetorical question only : should we allow our citizens to own or collect
surface to airmissles since SAMs do not kill people.  Seriously, all I mean
by that is where does one stop?  Is there a stopping place at all?  Should
there be?  Is it necessary in a responsible society?


David

PS........ Yes, Yes, Yes I know I have have made generalizations; that was
my intent; I know that their are exceptions.  However, I don't have the
patience now to write endless qualifications which only deflect from the
point.  Exceptions are too often used as fog.  The subject really is people
who kill people.

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