> I don't know if you got my point.
> (1) I wouldn't feel safe with _anyone_ in that bar carrying a gun,
> not even you or me. Why? Because one of the "ordinary" persons could
> feel so "empowered" to escalate the situation.
> (2) I wouldn't feel safe if someone would always carry a
> Molotov Cocktail either, because this would (from my view) also be a sign
> of a fearful and potential dangerous person.
> (3) I am talking from my perspective here in Germany, where we'd rather
> call the police than try to play the hero. (cf. Sting: "Englishman In
> New York")
Your point 3 contradicts your point 1, because you /do/ in fact want the
policeman to carry a gun, otherwise he will be unprepared to deal with the
possibly dangerous and violent situation for which you called him. You
seem to have a typically European bias that somehow the policeman is more
qualified to "play hero" than other citizens, while the American tradition
leans more toward self-reliance.
Secondly, how do your feelings deal with the fact that technologies are
on the horizon that make a handgun seem like a child's toy? The "problem"
(if there is one) with firearms is no different from any other empowering
technology: it empowers evil people to do more evil, and good people to
do more good--but since we fear the former, we restrict the technology
which ends up limiting the latter. The extropian ideal is to create new
and better technologies that empower the good guys more, to keep ahead of
the bad guys, and figure out what causes people to become bad guys and
deal with that.
> I have heard this argument before: "The minorities" are far more violent
> and criminal than the rest. (I won't discuss prejudices of the police and
> justice here) It is sad to say that the numbers seem to confirm this
> theory, in the US as well as here.
Mike said nothing of the sort, and nothing even remotely resembling this.
It seems clear to me that you didn't even try to read and understand what
he did say, and this reflects very poorly on the value of anything you
might have to say.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:33 MDT