Saturday 19 January 2013

GUNS AND STATE VIOLENCE.


        There is a lot of sound and fury going on in America at the moment about guns, should they be banned, should certain types of guns be banned. Of course the gun lobby keeps up the cry that guns don't kill, it is people. Others say that it is rage that is at the root of all those shootings and massacres. Of course there is rage in America, perhaps it is because, even subconsciously, the American people now realise that "the American dream" was an illusion, it was a con, perpetrated by the corporate world.  It never did reach all Americans and it is doubtful if it ever reached anywhere near the majority of the American people. It was a propaganda weapon that kept everybody beavering away with the selfish desire that they were going to make it big time. They were going to get up the ladder higher than others and accrue more than others. A little bit of rationalism would have told them, that can't happen to everybody, so the dream was flawed from its inception. On the matter of guns, my only question is, what are guns for? Their only purpose is to kill, that is what they were designed to do, they are not fashion adornments, they surely aren't status symbols. Somewhere in the psyche of gun lovers there must be some link with the guns only purpose. Of course simply banning guns will not stop murders and massacres, but turning away from the love of guns might change that psyche.
      However, I see American society as a microcosm of the American state. Across the globe we see America indulging in mass killings by the biggest guns on earth, they make it quite obvious that they take it as right that they should solve what they deem to be problems, with firepower, but throw their hands in the air in anguish when individuals do like wise. Throughout our history, guns have always meant power, as we rampaged across the planet raping and plundering its resources, but this violent response to what the state sees as problems, is labeled morally right and stamped legal, but that violence is meant to be its prerogative. When individuals and groups do likewise to solve their problems, it is labeled morally wrong and stamped illegal. It is obviously a flawed system. 

ann arky's home.

No comments:

Post a Comment