My Thoughts concerning Gun Control and the recent California Raids:
Fear is undoubtedly the single most pervasive aspect of our culture. Laziness may well be the second.
Insurance companies, Police, Clerics, Lawyers, and Politicians top the list of fear-mongers who capitalize on creating sensation and panic every time “something happens”. The key word is capital…there’s gold in them thar fears….
And once “Something Happens” inevitably, a scapegoat is chosen. Pit-bull terriers, guns, anti-depressants, violence in the media, homosexuals, Communists, promiscuity, atheists, drugs, illegal aliens, the internet, and pornography top the list.
The population of the United States is well over three hundred million. We have a national media service with almost instant access to any event, perceived trend, personality or group upon which to focus their attention in order to sell copy or SoundBites.
If every time a pit-bull terrier bites anything other than kibble, it gets reported on CNN, the public will soon come to regard them as a Growing Menace to the Public, as the process of demonization begins.
Despite our lip service to being the melting pot, we are largely still a nation of self-righteous xenophobes and bigots. The stereotypical depiction of the bellicose, drunken, heavily armed, functionally illiterate, drawling, ultra-right-wing, rabidly Christian, nose-picking, rebel flag-waving, toothless, unwashed cousin-fucking Klansman who will shoot and eat anything that moves as a realistic depiction of NRA members, or even Southerners in general by the self-proclaimed Northeastern elitist intellectual liberal intelligentsia who are themselves often demonized by any number of other groups as being rude, Jewish, homosexual, communist, Neo-McCarthyist Left-Wing, atheist, anarchist drug addicts and perverts can only occur when people are too fearful, lazy, and narrow-minded to extend the same courtesy of acceptance that they themselves desire of others. There are bigots of every stripe and color, and demonization is a tool of bigotry of any kind.
We are quick to point the finger of blame at others, but slow to accept responsibility for our own actions.
Laziness, Ignorance and Fear has rendered us a nation of cowards. It takes tremendous courage to open your heart to anyone who is not exactly like you or aspires to different values. Of course there is danger involved.
There was a time when our ancestors crossed vast expanses of the United States as explorers of a new land, risking life itself in search of whatever dreams they chased. It was dangerous. Gloriously, invigoratingly dangerous, and their bravery helped determine who we were to become as a nation.
Part of the danger lay in the fact that many white settlers had no respect for the indigenous peoples they trampled, raped, infected and killed (whom they regarded as savages), who fought back. In this respect, little has changed.
Now we are polymorphously fearful to leave our own neighborhoods after dark, yet unwilling to accept responsibility for our own defense.
Many people in ignorance label self-defense as vigilantism, and admonish law-abiding gun owners to leave it to the professionals, meaning the Police in spite of the fact that few violent crimes are ever stopped in progress by the police.
Some cop with a doughnut in one hand and a clipboard in the other is not going to bring back any murder victims, or get your property back (that’s what insurance is for, they tell us). They just draw the chalk lines, take pictures and file reports. I’m not blaming the cops. We shouldn’t expect them to make the world safe if we don’t take responsibility for some of it ourselves.
This is not about taking the law into your own hands…it is about taking back control of your Life into your own hands.
That which detracts from the freedoms of any of us diminishes and demeans the liberties of all of us.
Democracy and Freedom are inherently inefficient, noisy, messy, dangerous, unruly concepts by which we govern people. There is Life in danger and instability. It keeps us vibrant, and vigilant. It promotes all the instincts of self-preservation that keep us vital and alive, and I savor the risks like draughts of fine cognac.
Why are we so quick to throw away our lives for a cause or a promise of Heaven Tomorrow, but so slow to defend ourselves?
Our fear of Death makes us afraid to live.
We are quick to parrot phrases like “If it will save the life of even one child, it will all be worth it” paying little regard for anything else, even the lives of adults, let alone their freedoms.
I say that if it will save the life of one otherwise defenseless woman from being terrorized by an abusive man by abolishing all “waiting periods” for gun sales, then I am for it…the logic cuts both ways… (and by the way, that has happened…women have died waiting for the weapon that would have saved their lives…you can’t plan someone else’s “crimes of passion”, but you should prepare for them.)
It is no coincidence that women and the elderly are now the fastest-growing market for new firearms sales. With self-determinism comes self-defense.
Hunting represents a series of skill-sets that embrace an understanding of the nature of life itself. Indian hunters would ask permission of the animal they were about to kill, and only killed what they ate. It is a matter of taking responsibility for your actions.
Anyone who claims to hate hunters but still eats meat is a hypocrite in denial of the fact that they still condone the killing of animals by proxy of the slaughterhouse butchers. (Just remember that vegetarian pacifists get murdered in their homes just like anyone else, if they are unable or unwilling to defend themselves.)
And if you are a vegetarian pacifist, and I should observe someone trying to kill or rape you, would you prefer that I just mind my own business?
This outrage in California should be a red flag for all Americans. When the NRA stated more than forty years ago, that they were opposed to gun registration lists because they would eventually be used as confiscation lists, many people labeled it as unfounded paranoia, despite historical precedence to the contrary, as happened in Nazi Germany.
The general opinion back then was that law-abiding citizens who have nothing to hide would be in no danger…and the public just swallowed.
Now the chicken has come home not only to roost, but also to shit on our heads. If I was the president of the NRA, the cover of next month’s issue of The National Rifleman would read “We TOLD YOU SO!!! in letters so big that there would be room for nothing else.
It takes some knowledge of the principles of American government to appreciate the irony of the statement “I don’t hate my government, but I sure wish they would stop trying to take over the country.”
We are a nation that was founded upon rebellion against tyranny. Less than one hundred years later, Henry David Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience because we needed to be reminded that government is not infallible, and that the only thing that is necessary for Evil or Tyranny to prevail is for people of good conscience to do nothing.
More than one hundred years later, peaceful Civil Disobedience was the only way to stop a senseless, stupid war and start the Civil Rights Movement, both of which were met with violence, not only by the government, but also our own citizens.
The world is a violent place. I would aspire to help make it more peaceful by not adding to it, but I am not willing to lie down and die waiting for it to get better.
One of the premises of American Democracy was the abolishment of so-called Debtor’s Prisons, despite the fact that people are now daily incarcerated for Failure to Pay court-ordered sums, regardless of their ability to pay them.
Now such things as unpaid parking or traffic fines or taxes are considered grounds to not only confiscate legally-purchased weapons without a trial, but also rob you of your constitutionally-guaranteed second amendment right of self-defense. What’s next? Overdue library books? Anyone care to place any bets on how many of those weapons will ever be returned?
Now the “Gateway Drug” of Violence is reputedly anti-depressants. About thirty years ago, a movement was started to subject bartenders to legal and civil action for irresponsibly dispensing alcohol…instead of placing the ultimate responsibility in the hands of the user.
Due to their unimpugned social and professional privilege, I doubt that we will raise the question of the responsibility of the doctors involved for not properly monitoring their patients for whom they prescribed these anti-depressants (especially the ones who committed mass murder), but regardless, personal responsibility has become passé in favor of labeling all of us as victims of something or other.
It’s not just “a shame” that the actions of a few spoil it for the many…it is groundless rubbish, and it’s unconstitutional.
As anyone who has read my works will attest, I have been a champion of those who live on The Edge, who test the limits of everything, including authority. In my perfect world, nothing is inherently sacred or profane.
Sexual explorations and practices between consenting adults (or like-minded animals) is nobody else’s business.
Drug abuse is an improper term, since at worst it is people who get abused by drugs, not vice-versa. Drug experimentation is similarly inaccurate in most cases, because for many of us, it stopped being experimental at least twenty years ago, unless someone can get me some Ayahuasca or El Changa, Yopo, or even Ibogaine….
The point is that my freedom to extend my fist stops just short of someone else’s face. As long as no one else is hurt, it is solely my business; however, ambitious, desperate scavengers with no other purpose than to further their own careers with terms like potential, threshold, gateway, borderline, unseen victims or Crime Prevention would likely make it a crime to make a fist in the first place, rather than hold me accountable for my actions.
“Love many and trust few…and always paddle your own canoe.”
As a child, I was told that freedom of speech does not allow someone to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. Apparently, it now OK to yell “The sky is falling” every time a shot is fired.
Do not misunderstand or distort my meaning on this point, however: I am sickened and saddened every time some misguided, desperate selfish asshole decides to murder anyone, or when a man (or woman) of Peace is forced to kill in self-defense. This includes Police and the Military. Theirs is not an easy job, and anyone who has had to take the life of another will tell you that, justified or not, you will carry that Kharma with you for the rest of your life. The key phrase being “the rest of your life…”
I have often referred to myself as a gun-carrying Zen Buddhist/Taoist Pacifist. I see no contradiction in the terms. It takes courage and wisdom to find balance in all things, and a lifetime of experience to acquire them.
The real shame in these stupid, selfish murders is that they go unabated until the police not only arrive, but also deploy and intervene, which is typically at least six minutes to arrive, in major urban areas. That may not seem like a lot of time, unless someone is trying to kill you, or your heart has stopped…I know; I was a paramedic for over twenty years.
In the early years of the development and exploration of our country, it was first the colonists, and later the pioneers of the west that depended on responsible local citizens to help defend and protect each other and form posses. There was no National Guard…just local citizens watching each other’s backs. That was what “a well-regulated militia” meant. Period.
Where are the legally armed firearms owners when you really need them?
Unfortunately, there are not enough of us to make up for the inevitable inability of the Police to actively protect us without turning the country into a police state…and by the way, legally armed concealed weapons owners are as a group more law-abiding than even judges, lawyers, lawmakers, or cops, statistically speaking….
Fortunately, I live in Florida, where the firearms laws are more liberal than most…(there’s two words you don’t often hear in the same sentence). Ironically, California was the first to thumb its nose at the federal government regarding marijuana use, only to cave in on this issue. Make no mistake, the State of California not only allowed, but encouraged the federal government to conduct the raids, or else they would not have happened.
In the late Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, I learned to keep my head low and fly under the radar. I had to balance my desire for fame as a Rock guitarist with my desire for anonymity as a deviant madman and a pervert in the most general of terms, so I largely eschewed involvement in free speech and radical politics to the extent that I would have otherwise preferred.
Maybe it was chicken-shit, but I managed to cut a pretty wide swath on a small scale and still stay out of jail (It’s a wise fish that knows what pond suits him best).
It is not without some considerable trepidation that I am airing this post, but without our first amendment rights, it’s only a matter of time before we lose our second amendment rights, as well as vice-versa.
If I fear retaliation for exercising my right of free speech, and remain silent, my paranoia will ensure a self-fulfilling prophesy. If I speak out, only to become the object of persecution however, I will not “go quietly into that dark, still night.”
As the saying goes “Use it or lose it.”
I also realize that I may lose some of the few followers I have if they do not understand that Kink/Fet, as well as sexual, intellectual and civil liberties in general for everyone are a shared interest, and would once again repeat:
“Anything that impinges on the rights and liberties of any of us diminishes the lives and freedoms of all of us.”
Who will Protect Us from our Protectors?
Peace (with claws)….
(BTW…As regards drug abuse: No drugs were harmed in the writing of this text.)
Chazz Vincent
December 3rd, 2013
dreamlanddancing 