An interesting dilemma presented itself
on a rerun of the television series Bones.
The diabolically evil antagonist devised a scheme whereby he electronically
drained the enormous wealth of one of the good guys while simultaneously threatening
death to several innocent civilians. The
only way the good guy could stop the draining of his wealth would have been to
break a life saving electronic link to the civilians. The dilemma: save your own wealth or the
lives of complete strangers. Without hesitation, our hero chose to maintain
the link with the victims, sacrificing all that he owned for their safety. Painful though it was, it was the right thing
to do.
That episode keeps coming back to
me whenever the subject of gun control comes up. Despite the fact that the United States
registers more than 11,000
gun related deaths per year, people like the NRA’s CEO Wayne
Lapiere scream bloody murder whenever the tiniest steps are suggested to
curb this senseless violence. Mind you,
no one is talking about leaving law abiding citizens without guns to hunt or protect
themselves. They merely want to ban military
style assault weapons and tighten control of the flow of guns, including
stricter background checks as well as some other common sense proposals. Given the massacres at places like Sandy
Hook elementary school, and the ongoing slaughter of innocent children in
places like Chicago, where a six
month old baby was just shot to death
, one has to wonder why anyone who
isn’t a sociopath would object to such measures.
I believe the answer lies in the
right wing’s fanatical paranoia concerning freedom. The Right simply refuses to understand that
absolute freedom and community are antithetical. They cannot exist together. Unless you’re in a nudist colony, the
presence of other human beings means that you do not have the freedom to go around
naked. We have stop signs and traffic
lights because multiple cars, as well as pedestrians occupy the streets. Yet this
childish and selfish world view, predicated upon the elevation of the
individual above the group, persists as the foundation for resistance to any
form of gun control. In his recent
speech before the Conservative
Political Action Committee (CPAC), Lapiere stated:
“ …our Founding
Fathers knew that without the Second Amendment and that freedom, all of our
freedoms could be in jeopardy.”
This paranoia over freedom has permeated
almost all right wing politics. It,
along with Grover
Norquist’s pledge against raising taxes of any kind, has made compromise (which
is the backbone of any democracy) almost impossible in Washington. Consider what Chuck Norris, the martial arts
actor, had to say about President Obama in a video
he made about the presidential campaign:
"If we look to history, our great
country and freedom are under attack," Norris says. "We're at a
tipping point and, quite possibly, our country as we know it may be lost
forever if we don't change the course in which our country is headed."
Again the
issue is framed, not as an honest disagreement among intelligent, patriotic,
fellow Americans, but as freedom vs. EVIL.
And who could forget Ronald Reagan’s famous warnings that Social
Security would mean the end of freedom as we know it? Isn’t it ironic that it was Reagan who was
famous for his use of the “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on
me.” adage and yet Republicans continue to fall for the “threat to freedom”
ruse over and over and over again?
So why
are the freedom arguments so hysterically hyperbolic? My guess is that the hysteria serves as a
smokescreen for how truly inane and unpatriotic the Right Wing positions are,
especially on gun control. Patriotism involves sacrifice. The soldier who makes the ultimate sacrifice is
considered to be the ultimate patriot. Yet these people aren’t willing to give up anything-
not even the time it takes to secure adequate background checks- to save
American lives! Can anyone tell me what is so patriotic about
refusing to allow mentally ill people to be checked before giving them guns
with which to kill other Americans? Maybe if they shout loudly enough no one will question
the logic that says that gun ownership is a God given right, but health care is
not.
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