Why Do They Pretend To Care?

lewrockwell.com / By Butler Shaffer / August 14, 2012

The law locks up both man and woman Who steals the goose from off the common, But lets the greater felon loose Who steals the common from the goose.

~ Anonymous

In the aftermath of the murders at the Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee, a lot of counterfeit hand-wringing was expressed by members of the media, politicians, and men and women who could be counted on to appear on television, covering all the bases of politically correct opinion. Once again, we are treated to the spectacle of people engaging in that deadly practice of psychological “projection” (i.e., the effort to rid oneself of undesired “dark side” influences by presuming such traits to reside in others). Institutional deflectors of causal inquiries find the explanation for undesirable events in superficialities such as guns, rock music, lifestyles, alcohol or illegal drugs, clothing styles, or any other behavior that does not negatively implicate corporate-state interests.

Is the availability of guns the underlying cause of such seemingly random violence against strangers? In my youth – in the late 1940s – it was commonplace for teenage boys to own a rifle – usually .22 caliber in nature. While I did not own such a weapon, I learned how to use one at a Boy Scout camp. Many – perhaps most – of my friends owned a rifle or shotgun, and I do not recall any mass killings resulting therefrom.

The idea that material objects have the capacity to direct and control our behavior is so childish that you can see how nicely it fits into the state’s interests in keeping us as obedient children. But if the proposition be true, none of us has “free will” (i.e., we are but billiard balls reacting – without intention – to forces outside us). Vector analysis, employing laws of physics, would be sufficient to explain human behavior. If this is so, what moral justification would the state have to punish anyone for anything that they do? If guns were responsible for the mass-killings in Colorado as well as in Wisconsin, why should those who pulled the triggers be held responsible? Perhaps we could revert to the practice in early England when, for example, if a gate collapsed and killed a man, the gate was put on trial and, if found guilty, punished for its “wrongdoing.”

But if guns have the power to cause us to do things we would not be inclined to do in their absence, wouldn’t the same logic apply to weaponry in the hands of the state? Perhaps it is the guns, bombs, rockets, aircraft carriers, missiles, bombers, and other inanimate tools of death and destruction that cause wars. Those who desire peace in the world should organize themselves on behalf of disarming the state; of taking from the military and police officers the tools with which they are driven by unseen forces to inflict violence upon others. Perhaps the power of inanimate “things” explains why the United States leads the world in the percentage of its population in penitentiaries: in the language of chaos theory, prisons may serve as “attractors” that draw men and women to be incarcerated therein!

It would be easy to dismiss my suggestions as empty foolishness except for the fact that they are quite logical extensions of the premises upon which the media and politically-minded persons operate. If guns make us their unwilling agents of violence in one setting, why not in the other? Such a mindset helps to explain why our behavior is so irresponsible: we are the passive “victims” of things that exercise their wills over us; material objects control us!

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2012-08-14 17:21:08

Source: http://silveristhenew.com/2012/08/14/why-do-they-pretend-to-care-2/