@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
The question is, How much longer will it take? Not how intelligent a poster may or may not be. We have to get this under control. Daily massacres are never okay.
There's no quick solution, because it is a reflection of a much larger, global political conflict that's been going on for centuries. Centralism is the belief that power should be concentrated in central governmental authorities and authorized police and military, and suppressed among the general population. Decentralism, if you want to call it that, is the idea that the people can be responsible for governing themselves and can be trusted with things like weapons to do so.
Now, think about what makes a case for centralism: terror caused by chaos, conflict, violence, abuses, etc. among the people generates support for stronger central governmental authority and disarming of the people.
So there are many ways to stimulate the kind of bad behavior that terrorizes people and evokes their support of stronger central power, rampant drug/sex abuse culture, for example. Think about the song, Welcome to the Jungle, by Guns and Roses and that is the state of society sought by advocates of stronger centralized power.
So in the midst of the turmoil, there are others who know that people are capable of governing their own behavior responsibly, and so we know that there are cultural obstructions to reaching them with this knowledge; but the question is how long we hold out against supporting stronger centralism when the pursuit of liberty seems so ineffective?
We could give in and give up liberty, but then we think of Ben Franklin saying that giving up liberty for security doesn't work, so we have to look for a different path that doesn't sacrifice liberty.
