protect against tyranny

{Gaslight (1944, Cukor) continuing on Monday}


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"I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."


-- Anne Frank


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a thought:
Many security guards do their job without guns, and without weapons of any kind.  Policemen can do this, too.




a theory:
I've been thinking about this lately:  some people will say, "Everything people do, they do for money.  Money is the motivator."  (...sometimes invoking the Watergate-era quotation from Woodward's nighttime parking-garage informant, "Follow the money"...)





But I have a different thought.  I think most of the dumb and rotten and evil stuff that is done is done because of two motivations, and neither of them is money:


1)  ego
and
2)  "following the crowd" -- copying the behavior of others




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a New York Times Reader Comment from yesterday:


Kevin    Northport NY
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Driving a car while being black seems to be a capital crime.  For that matter, being a black male and standing around is also a capital crime.


We need to hire a new police force, people from entirely different life experiences.  Give the current police force jobs in something else, not security.




a NYT Rreader Comment from today:


Jonah Kind    Washington, DC
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Gun advocates often say that a citizen right to firearms is necessary to protect against tyranny. 


Last night, it seems that some people in Dallas may have used that right to combat what they see as tyranny:  the killing of innocent civilians by police officers. 


Allowing anyone to have the right to combat what they see as tyranny in the most extreme way possible means that everyone will have that right. 


Giving people powerful weapons to combat "tyranny" may seem like a good idea when you agree with them, but different people define that term differently. 


Giving people the right to decide who lives or dies whenever they think it's necessary is clearly a recipe for disaster. 


Take away the guns.
2473 Recommend




a NYT reader comment from today, from Canada:


Vinit    Vancouver
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As a non-American, I sympathize with many commenters in their plea for greater gun control in the united States. 


However, to say that the problem is all about guns is to overlook deeper systemic issues:  issues of race, of inequality and a culture that promotes violence at home and abroad. 


Some may argue that it's a luxury to deal with root causes when we have a problem now.  I would argue that the current spate of killings is symptomatic of larger problems that must be dealt with for the symptoms to disappear.


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