Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Gun Love Versus Effective Resistance
Below is comment I posted in response to a Blog post (included below) by David G at his "Dangerous Creation" blog. His post in essence, deals with what I call the means of resistance. As I explain below his post, one should not confuse the means, even when improperly used, with the ultimate aim of employing such means. In other words, a tool can be used in various ways. Some good some bad. This, however, is not necessarily reflective of the tool rather than to what end(s) the tool was wielded for to begin with.
Posted on August 6, 2012 by David G
Does Gun Love = Mental Sickness?
Friends, Al Jazeera today has an interesting article called ‘Arming the Asylum’, one written by Naomi Wolfe. I include a small excerpt for your consideration.
“According to a 2007 survey, the United States is far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of gun ownership, with 90 guns for every 100 citizens. With 5 per cent of the global population, the US has between one-third and one-half of the world’s civilian-owned guns – around 270 million weapons. And many studies show that the US far surpasses other developed countries in deaths from gun violence – 30,000 per year, most of them suicides, but more than 12,000 of them homicides – while guns injure 200,000 Americans annually.”
The facts contained in the paragraph and knowledge of the history of America since its inception suggest to me that the love affair that Americans have with their guns is predisposing them towards violence and taking land and resources from others by force.
Think about the Native Indians. The early American settlers slaughtered them and took all their land. Later, the army was brought in to assist in the slaughter. Machine guns were used against people who had arrows and spears. Yeehah!
The right to bear arms would seem to me to be the most important things in the Constitution to most Americans. Resultantly the nation is bursting at the seams with guns. And not just hunting rifles but assault weapons.
I guess if you have a cellar filled with shiny, lethal assault weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition then your mind is leaning towards them. They have the effect of making you feel like a bigger man than you are, that ‘taking down’ someone in ‘Terminator-style’ is the sure-fire way to resolve any serious conflict you may have with neighbours, friends, relatives, and society generally!
In fact, I would say that the people of the United States, especially the males, are collectively sick, psychotic, disturbed, and deranged and that ownership of guns is one of the main causes. A small example: I met a very nice American couple staying in Canada when I lived there in the seventies. They both slept with a revolver under their pillows even though gun violence in Canada was rare. Habits are hard to break, aren’t they?
Of course America is polluting the whole world with its exports of dangerous weapons and I don’t just mean guns. It wants everyone to be armed to the teeth because it makes lots of money from gun sales and owning guns predisposes people to think ‘killing and war.’
What can the world do about this sick, sick country that is drawing the world into endless war?
BDS is one option. Getting rid of weapons in our own nation is another. Ridiculing American films and television shows that glorify guns and killing is another. Maintaining that owning a gun is a sign of both immaturity and lack of self-esteem is another. Stopping children from being exposed to guns is essential!
Peace will never come to Earth while it is awash with guns!
Q's Response:
David, when you use the term "Americans" let's not forget that this means White Americans. The U. S., as you alluded to in your piece, was founded as a White colonial settler state. Like other settle States (i.e. South Africa, Israel) the way of the gun was integral to the founding of the U. S. along with supremacist notions otherwise known as "manifest destiny" or "the American Dream."
For the record, I am against gun control laws because an armed populace serves as a bulwark against state tyranny. Or, at least, it is supposed to. The main problem in the U.S., and in other Western societies, is that curiously the violence, as Derrick Jensen (http://www.derrickjensen.org/), notes, mostly flows from the top down and when it doesn't, as the most recent two massacres here in the States show, is directed inward toward the general populace rather than the true source of the problem. Namely, the Capitalist system and the concomitant economic inequality. While OWS was a welcome development in terms of resistance directed at the real culprit(s), the movement, dominated as it was by Middle Class elements, failed to, indeed abhorred, developing a coherent, consistent and thoroughgoing class based politics. This, along with the police repression, is why it eventually lost steam and then, what was left, co-opted by Democratic Party operatives.
The movement identified the source of power without fully grasping its dimensions and thus failing to understand how to confront it. Such a confrontation, due to the nature or form of both the State and its captors, will not bear fruit for the suffering masses simply via non-violent means. At least some violence should be expected and, all things considered, probably copious amounts (see the Egyptian Revolution) of it. Trying to go at it "naked" (badly armed politically and emasculated in terms of physical resistance) as the OWS did will spell defeat, as what happened, every single time. In the end, what will be required for any kind of push back against the burgeoning Fascist State is, front and center, a mass movement with a proper political outlook and competent leadership along with a willingness to fight. As someone once said, by any means necessary.
Posted on August 6, 2012 by David G
Does Gun Love = Mental Sickness?
Friends, Al Jazeera today has an interesting article called ‘Arming the Asylum’, one written by Naomi Wolfe. I include a small excerpt for your consideration.
“According to a 2007 survey, the United States is far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of gun ownership, with 90 guns for every 100 citizens. With 5 per cent of the global population, the US has between one-third and one-half of the world’s civilian-owned guns – around 270 million weapons. And many studies show that the US far surpasses other developed countries in deaths from gun violence – 30,000 per year, most of them suicides, but more than 12,000 of them homicides – while guns injure 200,000 Americans annually.”
The facts contained in the paragraph and knowledge of the history of America since its inception suggest to me that the love affair that Americans have with their guns is predisposing them towards violence and taking land and resources from others by force.
Think about the Native Indians. The early American settlers slaughtered them and took all their land. Later, the army was brought in to assist in the slaughter. Machine guns were used against people who had arrows and spears. Yeehah!
The right to bear arms would seem to me to be the most important things in the Constitution to most Americans. Resultantly the nation is bursting at the seams with guns. And not just hunting rifles but assault weapons.
I guess if you have a cellar filled with shiny, lethal assault weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition then your mind is leaning towards them. They have the effect of making you feel like a bigger man than you are, that ‘taking down’ someone in ‘Terminator-style’ is the sure-fire way to resolve any serious conflict you may have with neighbours, friends, relatives, and society generally!
In fact, I would say that the people of the United States, especially the males, are collectively sick, psychotic, disturbed, and deranged and that ownership of guns is one of the main causes. A small example: I met a very nice American couple staying in Canada when I lived there in the seventies. They both slept with a revolver under their pillows even though gun violence in Canada was rare. Habits are hard to break, aren’t they?
Of course America is polluting the whole world with its exports of dangerous weapons and I don’t just mean guns. It wants everyone to be armed to the teeth because it makes lots of money from gun sales and owning guns predisposes people to think ‘killing and war.’
What can the world do about this sick, sick country that is drawing the world into endless war?
BDS is one option. Getting rid of weapons in our own nation is another. Ridiculing American films and television shows that glorify guns and killing is another. Maintaining that owning a gun is a sign of both immaturity and lack of self-esteem is another. Stopping children from being exposed to guns is essential!
Peace will never come to Earth while it is awash with guns!
Q's Response:
David, when you use the term "Americans" let's not forget that this means White Americans. The U. S., as you alluded to in your piece, was founded as a White colonial settler state. Like other settle States (i.e. South Africa, Israel) the way of the gun was integral to the founding of the U. S. along with supremacist notions otherwise known as "manifest destiny" or "the American Dream."
For the record, I am against gun control laws because an armed populace serves as a bulwark against state tyranny. Or, at least, it is supposed to. The main problem in the U.S., and in other Western societies, is that curiously the violence, as Derrick Jensen (http://www.derrickjensen.org/), notes, mostly flows from the top down and when it doesn't, as the most recent two massacres here in the States show, is directed inward toward the general populace rather than the true source of the problem. Namely, the Capitalist system and the concomitant economic inequality. While OWS was a welcome development in terms of resistance directed at the real culprit(s), the movement, dominated as it was by Middle Class elements, failed to, indeed abhorred, developing a coherent, consistent and thoroughgoing class based politics. This, along with the police repression, is why it eventually lost steam and then, what was left, co-opted by Democratic Party operatives.
The movement identified the source of power without fully grasping its dimensions and thus failing to understand how to confront it. Such a confrontation, due to the nature or form of both the State and its captors, will not bear fruit for the suffering masses simply via non-violent means. At least some violence should be expected and, all things considered, probably copious amounts (see the Egyptian Revolution) of it. Trying to go at it "naked" (badly armed politically and emasculated in terms of physical resistance) as the OWS did will spell defeat, as what happened, every single time. In the end, what will be required for any kind of push back against the burgeoning Fascist State is, front and center, a mass movement with a proper political outlook and competent leadership along with a willingness to fight. As someone once said, by any means necessary.
