----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Land" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <brin-l@mccmedia.com> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 6:53 PM Subject: RE: An armed society ...
> Ritu wrote: > >> You don't have to be fan of SF to appreciate what he was trying to >> say. >> According to my observations, the more lethal the members of a >> society >> are, the more emphasis the social norms lay on politeness. As John >> explained to me in Korea, when a stare is taken as an invitation >> for >> verbal abuse, and the wrong tone of voice or wrong body language >> can >> spark of fight with black-belts, people learn to be scrupulously >> polite. > > First, with respect to the idea behind the Heinlein quote, it is > generally true that (reasonable) people are scrupulously polite in > the face of deadly force. Most hostages treat their captors with > strenuous courtesy, even if they would rather rip their intestines > out and feed 'em to them. In my high school, we had fairly high > racial tensions. It was generally known that not showing respect to > certain kids would result in a beat-down, so those kids were > accorded undue politeness and deference. > > An armed society is a society in which everyone is capable of > dealing death. I will not live in fear. I do not want to live in a > society where "politeness" is enforced by the fact that if I do not > suck up to someone appropriately, they'll give me hot lead brain > surgery. > > The whole argument smells way too much like "Well, at least the > trains ran on time." for my liking. I don't want to live in a > "distributed dictatorship", which is what the libertarian utopia of > an armed society looks like to me. > Lest we forget that swords can cut with two edges........................... The greatest effect firearms have had upon history is to remove the advantage the large and powerful have always had over the small and weak. But if you really fear firearms and have no faith in your fellow humans, you should rid your kitchen of large cutting blades........just in case you piss off someone in your family and happen to go to sleep at an inopportune moment.<G> xponent In The News Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
