At 08:26 PM Monday 12/5/2005, Robert Seeberger wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronn!Blankenship" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <brin-l@mccmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: An armed society ...
> At 08:05 PM Monday 12/5/2005, Robert Seeberger wrote:
>
>>----- 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>
>
>
>
> Particularly if your wife's name is Lorena . . .
>
>
> Unkind Cut Maru
>
>
Bobbit......the name itself is a tasty irony.
xponent
The Ironic Chef Maru
rob
"If a burglar is someone guilty of burglary, if a glutton is someone
guilty of gluttony ... then God is an iron."
-- Spider Robinson (1948 - ), Canadian science fiction writer.
--Ronn! :)
"Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country
and two words have been added to the pledge of Allegiance... UNDER
GOD. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that
would be eliminated from schools too?"
-- Red Skelton
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