tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790133239281196009.post7762677199717705006..comments2013-06-08T07:19:01.751-04:00Comments on Misanthropic Dissonance: We Are The Problem, Are We The Solution?Lunaril Larentiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11091423322148057379noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790133239281196009.post-24310549005442759172013-02-15T16:11:07.166-05:002013-02-15T16:11:07.166-05:00The real problem with violence is neither about me...The real problem with violence is neither about mental illness nor mass shootings. It is mostly about lack of respect for those targeted, often as a result of lack of respect for those who become the killers.<br /><br />I tend to wonder how people favoring gun rights can think they are being persuasive by acting like angry adolescents and threatening violence against those who disagree with their position.<br /><br />Nasty, aggressive argument against people who are concerned about gun ownership's possible negative consequences for themselves and others doesn't seem to me to be a good tactic to assure people of the good intentions of gun owners.<br /><br />Personally, I don't care whether people own guns or high heels or silly putty. You stay out of my way; I'll stay out of yours. What really irks me is all the unexamined talking points and escalated ire. It ought to be simple enough to understand that people are not likely to respond well to the prospect of stupid assholes with deadly weapons.<br /><br />I feel like I am watching a debate between the "get a gun" and the "get a law" crowds of revealed lore. As humans I guess weapons and laws as weapons (words as weapons) come to us easily. What if we stopped attempting to beat each other with our weapons of choice and moved through into a discussion about how to better get along? Maybe we can each have our weapons to work on practice, to feel safer, while looking beyond those defenses to some shared vision of useful interaction, civil dialog?<br /><br />This is where it all happens -- not in the formal laws, but in the cultural norms. The people don't want gun violence; they do not make it into a mystique or urge it as a natural right. Merely declaring an object illegal, if it is an object people are invested in wanting, will create criminals, not solutions. It is the investment in wanting the object that must be addressed, head on, and negated by social peer pressure.<br /><br />When the need to kill takes hold whatever object comes to hand will become the murder weapon the things with guns are: they are primarily weapons, therefore bringing up association to violence by their presence; they can more easily be used to fatal effect from a greater distance; they are harder to defend oneself against than in-close weapons; for the most part, guns don't kill people (although they can be used as blunt objects), bullets do.<br /><br /><br />libramoonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06077072773341726387noreply@blogger.com