Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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I just discovered this blog post, and it got me to thinking about things in a way I never actually articulated to myself before.
why the gun is civilization. « the munchkin wrangler.
There is a simple fact of life that most people do not really think about, all human interaction boils down to one of two things, reason, or force.
People today like to pretend they live in a society where reason has triumphed over force, they are wrong. If that was true, we would live in a society where violence does not happen at all. (Please note, the fact that violence exists does not prove that that we live in a violent society. Whether or not our society is violent is a separate discussion to my point, and not one that I believe is critical to the point I want to make.)
If you want to convince someone who is stronger than you of the merits of your arguments you have to either accept the fact that he might decide to ignore your reason and opt to use force, or find away to negate his advantage in force over you. Guns are that equalizer, and they are why control passed from the hands of people who could fight to the hands of people who can think. In other words, it wasn't reason that triumphed over force, it was guns that defeated it.
Guns turned the American west from a place where the strong triumphed over the weak to a place where farmers planted crops and built towns that became cities. Without guns we would be living under feudalism, not as free people. Taking gins out of the hands of people will turn our society from one where everyone is equal to one where the strong, who are usually the young, rule by fiat.
why the gun is civilization. « the munchkin wrangler.
There is a simple fact of life that most people do not really think about, all human interaction boils down to one of two things, reason, or force.
People today like to pretend they live in a society where reason has triumphed over force, they are wrong. If that was true, we would live in a society where violence does not happen at all. (Please note, the fact that violence exists does not prove that that we live in a violent society. Whether or not our society is violent is a separate discussion to my point, and not one that I believe is critical to the point I want to make.)
If you want to convince someone who is stronger than you of the merits of your arguments you have to either accept the fact that he might decide to ignore your reason and opt to use force, or find away to negate his advantage in force over you. Guns are that equalizer, and they are why control passed from the hands of people who could fight to the hands of people who can think. In other words, it wasn't reason that triumphed over force, it was guns that defeated it.
Guns turned the American west from a place where the strong triumphed over the weak to a place where farmers planted crops and built towns that became cities. Without guns we would be living under feudalism, not as free people. Taking gins out of the hands of people will turn our society from one where everyone is equal to one where the strong, who are usually the young, rule by fiat.