(ThyBlackMan.com) 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.
Staff Writer; William Griggs
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