House of Eratosthenes

So it’s clear to me, now, that when it comes down to a physical contest, we are not obliged, nor allowed, nor expected to defend ourselves. And this is not about gathering factual information, or statistics, to determine the best way to make our communities safer. If it were about that, the gun free zone would be living on borrowed time.

This is about culture conflict, straight-up. Guns bad, drugs good, cops bad, criminals good — who ya calling a criminal, anyway? Women good, men bad, up with ethnic, down with white, up with gay, down with straight, up with grass, down with tobacco, up with lady Ghostbusters, down with James Bond…it’s all about dividing us and tipping the scales in the ensuing culture-conflict, has nothing to do with actually fixing anything.

Except, it seems someone somewhere is choosing the culture. Christianity hasn’t got anything to do with guns…not much, anyway. Just one single thing fastens the issues together, the notion that human life is sacred. And yet when you look at the advocacy groups and the individuals that make them go, the alignment is nearly perfect. If someone opposes gun ownership, odds are they’re not too friendly with Christianity. Some Christians don’t like guns, but it’s hard to find one who will actually begrudge someone else’s decision to own one. They don’t look down on it with sneering contempt like the godless liberals do.

The day after Independence Day, I look around and notice it seems to have to do with independence…versus, dependence. It’s a disagreement of opinion about how government is supposed to function. What are our leaders, anyway? Is it a huge win for us when they escape accountability? Some people seem to think so, and these seem to be the people who think tax cuts are some sort of awful terrible idea. And, guns are bad. And that masculinity is bad too. Okay so when I put all this together, we’re not getting a very appealing picture…having a tough time seeing how anyone can be drawn to it. We react churlishly to anyone showing some individual capability to handle his own concerns, like health care and self defense…except for the strong girl thing, we’re supposed to like that just fine. But “strong” is not the same as being able to defend oneself against a threat. (In fact, that’s the whole idea of owning a gun, right?) So we vote in these leaders and pay high taxes, the higher the better. Make The Rich Pay Their Fair Share, and all that. And these leaders figure out where the money is supposed to go, in order to accomplish…well, we don’t know what. And if they get busted for something, they skate, because they’re just super wonderful mega awesome people or something.

So, after they get all our tax money, they use it to provide the defense against bad guys that we’re not allowed to provide for ourselves? It seems that is not part of the mindset. And that concerns me more than anything else. Providing for some defense for the weak and helpless, against those who would do them harm, is the one thing government is supposed to do. That comes before roads, park benches, sidewalks, mail. That is one of the biggest reasons our leaders are supposed to be accountable to us. Seems to me we’re slowly but surely losing the whole ball of wax.

Thomas Sowell is wondering what we’re celebrating in early July these days. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to wonder that too.

I have a question about this. I think it all comes down to this: Why do we bother with civilization? Some would say it’s got something to do with buying packaged and inspected food off a grocery store aisle as opposed to growing it ourselves, and maybe wiping our asses with quality toilet paper instead of dead leaves. I don’t think that’s it. I’m very sure we’re doing a lot of things with the grocery-bought food, things that even in this advanced era take up a lot of our time, that a hundred years from now will seem pretty wasteful and crazy. I don’t even want to ponder what’s going to happen to the toilet paper thing. But would it be reasonable, in that future utopia, to say “Back in 2016 they didn’t have civilization yet”? I’m gonna go ahead and call that a no, so that means it’s not reasonable for me to say civilization had not yet started in the early 1800’s, which was missing the toilet paper and the deodorant and the air conditioning. They still had civilization, didn’t they?

Civilization, I say, is — I can’t take your stuff away from you just because I’m bigger and stronger. That’s it. Period. Well, that and this too: We have a system of laws, and those laws do not privilege you with a reduced penalty for the same crime just because you are politically powerful, or worth a lot of money. That’s part of civilization too. But first comes the non-brutality. Criminal and civil law. Redress of grievances, protection of the innocent. The strong come after the weak, there are protections put in place. There are preventions before the fact, and penalties after the fact, to protect the weak and undeserving from the strong and malevolent.

If we’re missing one of those things, it’s hard to call a society civilized. And it looks like, without a change in course, we’re losing both of them. Once the course changes, life will get better, but not until then.

I wrote last week about the first ten Amendments building on each other, almost like a story, with each successive one designed as a further layer to protect the primary concept: essentially, the inherent right of any person to be free to think and worship and possess the works of their own hand. I am planning to update and expand a few of them, and I think this is the natural way to go – to express these things, the inherent rights of mankind, in terms of civilization. You’ll be quoted and linked when I get to it.
- nightfly | 07/06/2016 @ 09:42
Celebrating the 4th of July?
Am I the only person left in the country that views overhead fireworks bursting in air with a
conflicted mind of :
1. Lest we forget.
2. OK, I’m good. Let’s roll.
I only “carry” when I believe it may be even REMOTELY prudent to do so in my sphere of influence.
(Arguably Piss Poor Planning in the eyes of some)
The 4th of July is the one day I “carry” ….”Just because….” .
I’ve already taken care of all the Flag/ Flag pole maintenance stuff, back on Flag day.
In fairness, I DO own “English” made Jaguars. I consider them trophies.
Kinda’ like “captured warships figureheads adorning the corners of the podium…”.
Disclosure: I AM a more advanced auto mechanic than MOST contemporary (ie)”dealer” shop
“certified” folk.
- CaptDMO | 07/07/2016 @ 03:05
Great points, but I think it ultimately goes far deeper than this. I think your points about the culture conflict AND civilization stem from how people view the ‘origin of rights’. One side, including most conservatives and Christians, see rights as ‘natural’ and God given and already exist (i.e. the Constitution is merely restating the obvious).

The opposing view is that ‘rights don’t exist until man invents them’. If man invents them, they can take them away ‘with a stroke of a pen’, and the essence of Socialism uses this worldview.

One problem with that worldview is that the ‘man made’ rights have to be stacked in order of importance, and some can supersede others. That’s why you get ‘up with gay, down with straight’ sort of clashes, it has to do with groups shuffling for position of whose rights are more important, but the fundamental thinking is that it’s a ‘man made’ list of rights.

Using your Christianity and guns point above, they both stem from people thinking these rights are ‘natural’ and they see no conflict or stacking required; if they choose not to own a firearm, they don’t begrudge someone else’s choice, nor do they grant the authority of government to enforce their choice on others.
- Wamphyr | 07/09/2016 @ 07:20
Yes, excellent summation. It illuminates in stark terms why the left is constantly embroiled in conflict, or at least, in its own brand of conflict, and in so doing refudiates the notion of “not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties” (or rather, ideologies).
- mkfreeberg | 07/09/2016 @ 07:38

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The One Thing the Government Is Supposed To Do
Tuesday, July 5th, 2016