Gun fetishism is driven by fear.
Not just fear of getting shot so much as fear of life itself. Americans have always been an individualistic people who define themselves as individuals in a nation by their ability to navigate the road of life by way of their own mettle. (In fact, I would like to do a study if there is a stronger correlation between refusing to ask for directions and being a man or being a American).
When that confidence in one's ability to navigate the road of life comes into question for good reason, fear takes root. That fear has to be addressed. Guns are one non-answer that the American people have come to fixate on. Drugs, consumerism, and bizarre fads are others. All are various ways of instilling oneself with a sense of confidence in one's place in the world, one's ability to control one's life.
But there is another very big factor that I most do not appreciate. The Baby Boomers. Americans like I said have long been an individualistic people, but that individualism has always been tempered by a sense of nationalism, conservatism and discipline. The Baby Boomers never believed in those things, because they weren't raised with them, because the Greatest Generation made sure they didn't have to be.
When the Baby Boomers were forced to pretend they grew up, guns went from being a narrow concern to a fetish. Guns were attractive to the Baby Boomers as a symbol of unrestrained individuality and personal omnipotence against a world increasingly defined by individual powerlessness and vicious uncertainty, through decades of moral doubt and decline in employee power. Guns, and things like Botox, Xanax, tax cuts, and various other forms of mindless self-indulgence.
The Baby Boomers reshaped the world in their image, a wild free-for-all, and the dialogue since has reflected that. We - the younger generation - are widely maligned, but we actually much more mature than the Baby Boomers who are retiring from their 40-year-reign as we speak.
Those today who came of age in the early 21st century are more likely to deal in tangibles, more likely to demand burden of proof (or affect to), more driven by questions of what is existentially good or worthwhile than by questions of what is accepted or respected, more driven by love of country and less by mindless careerism, less confined by the two-party system, and, in general, take life much more seriously.
People talk about how our generation has had it easy and I say that's horseshit. No one ever had it as easy as the Baby Boomers. The dumbass PHB Baby Boomer middle manager is culturally ubiquitous. Baby Boomers never had to deal with drug tests, mass unemployment, extortionate bank fees, wage slavery, grossly regressive taxation, or the pervasive influence of litigation mania through all levels of American society.
The gun obsession is just something else the Baby Boomers left behind, together with their doubts, their venality, and their folly. At least that's how I see it.
Jubbergun wrote:
That's incredibly short-sighted and uncharitable, and wouldn't explain why a majority of people do anything. Were a majority of people just being "stupid" to elect Obama?
Yes.
Jubbergun wrote:
That's a cop-out argument you could apply to anything.
The criteria I would use would be the absence of reasonable reasons. As we've seen in this thread, people will contrive and rationalize even when presented with contrary information.
Jubbergun wrote:
Why do you think that is? When have the Republicans ever gotten their end of any of these "compromises?" When Reagan when along with Tip O'Neill in the 80s and gave the Democrats some things they wanted in exchange for budget cuts that never happened, was that really compromise, or was that just Republicans giving Democrats what they wanted for nothing in return? Republicans have been getting burnt on "compromise" since at least the Reagan era, I'm not sure what's so shocking their attitude. Their supporters don't want compromise, they want their policies enacted.
Budget cuts to what? Reagan ran a deficit it because he increased government spending on the military during a period of high inflation and low economic growth. The only reason things turned around was the fortuitously timed Information Revolution, and not the policies of any politician (except Senator Gore).
Jubbergun wrote:
Yet there are facts to show they were wrong. You can't honestly say that guns are really a problem when you consider how many there are in the hands of private citizens and contrast that against how rare incidents like the Aurora shooting really are.
Rare by whose and what standard?
If you define rarity in relative terms, then mass shootings are common in America.
Jubbergun wrote:
You're assuming at least half the people in the country agree with you about guns. There are a lot of places where people still vote Democrat that aren't at all keen about gun laws.
The reverse is also true. American politics are so gridlocked that an issue need not have 50% of the population feeling strong about it for it to be anathema.
