I think that there is a continuim of human natures - some human needs are more immediate than others.
I optimistically think that the primary feature of human nature is to use our wits to succeed in spite of enviromental difficulties. We are animals, but don't have the specialized fur, claws, fangs, speed, strength that have made other species successful. Our only advantage is our ability to think through and solve immediate survival problems. I think this is the most rewarding thing that we can naturally do (nicotine, cannabis, opium, ethanol came much later...then cocaine and ultimately crack - but I digress).
We're naturally set-up to be problem-solvers. Greed, envy, lust for power only come after basic survival, and are relatively trivial when important - and interesting - survival problems are at hand.
In my estimation, it hasn't been until after WWII that a majority of the populace haven't had to regularly deal with real survival problems: Whether it was a hole in the roof, a drought threatening crops, livestock in trouble, machinery breaking down, there were always survival-critical problems to deal with.
Over the last three generations, these types of regular life challenges have almost disappeared. People have become used to conveniences to the point that they depend on them. We have shifted from an independent, rural population, to a dependent urban one.
We, as citizens, people, and maybe more importantly, animals are becomeing increasingly less concerned with immediate issues of survival. Inconveniences that would have been trivial to our grandparents, now seem insufferable - insufferable to the point that now a majority of us are willing to submit to subjugation to avoid them.
If the government will promise to make our lives convenient, a majority of us will now relinquish our responsiblily to survive on our own.
The problem with this is that successful and regular problem solving is what gives us as humans satisfaction, and makes our lives meaningful. Without real problems and consequences, real satisfaction is gone.
As dissatisfied humans, we start looking backward for meaning. We still don't need fur, claws, and fangs. Government has taken away our need for problem-solving. What do we do next?
The answer is obvious and displayed every day in our Capitol and other major cities.
The geniuses that established our country saw all of this coming. Our only hope as a nation (that has been interpreted as clinging to guns and religion) is to maintain freedom and responsibility for ourselves and families (and to keep alive the tradition of doing things by and for ourselves).
The one bright spot I see is that all of this is protected in our nation's Constitution.
We need to protect the direct application of our Constitution at all costs.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
My local paper is anti-gun
Increasingly more opinion in the Reflector has been about guns and the “unsettling” fascination many have with them. I suggest that the fascination isn’t really about guns, it’s about tools and the way in which tools allow us to control our environment. Our ability to manufacture and use tools is one of a few characteristics that separate us from lower species. We understand their significance in a manner similar to the way we appreciate the meaning of a smile or frown without ever having had to have been taught. Weapons, over the course of human events, have been a particularly important class of tool. They have been both blessing and curse, but they are as necessary today as they ever were – perhaps even more. As long as evil exists we’ll need weapons: they’re tools that allow us to resist evil. Humans innately recognize the value and empowerment that weapons bring, thus the fascination. Weapons are in one sense different than other tools in that they require upmost responsibility and good judgment on the part of those using them. A nation that allows its citizens to be armed is a nation that must trust the citizenry. Perhaps this is where those who are made nervous by the armed among them are having a problem. They realize that they are in a position where they must trust their fellow citizen. I suggest that, rather than encouraging the disarmament of your fellow citizens, that you should take responsibility for your own defense and join them. The key to avoiding another mass murder (such as the one that occurred at nearby Virginia Tech) is to eliminate areas wherein weapons are not permitted. “Gun-free zones” artificially create concentrations of defenseless potential victims – which, as we’ve seen too often, is a playground for evil.
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