[ExI] Tooth and Claw (was ccp struggles)

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Sat, 18 Apr 2020 at 17:08, The Avantguardian via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Friday, April 17, 2020, 06:03:19 AM PDT, Stathis Papaioannou via
> extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> >> The founding principle of America is that the people ARE the
> government. Whereas other countries have rulers, we Americans have
> representatives. In other words, we consent to be governed by our equals
> (i.e. morally equivalent peers) for the sake of schools and highways and
> the common good. But an armed person and an unarmed person are not equal,
> they cannot be, for one can coerce the other.
> >>
> >> Another way to think about it is this. Max Weber defined a state as an
> entity that maintained a monopoly on the legitimate use of force within its
> borders. In most countries when there arises a group of people like an
> armed gang, cartel, militia, or terrorist organization, then that monopoly
> on violence is broken and the existence of the state is questioned. Here in
> the United States of America however, since we have a "government of the
> people, by the people, for the people", we prevent this from happening by
> allowing almost everyone to have access to weapons and be part of the
> militia. An all-inclusive monopoly on the legitimate use of force can never
> be broken. The use of force for self-defense is legitimatized by natural
> law.. At least that was the intent of the Founders as near as I can tell.
> >>
> >> In America, if you can't govern an armed populace, then you are not fit
> to govern.
>
> > I can see that you believe this, but it is not an idea that people
> elsewhere in the world have, even if they support gun rights. It is like a
> religious idea, which has the characteristic that it seems crazy to anyone
> not already in the religion.
>
> Do you mean crazy in a clinical sense, Dr. Papaoinnnou? More or less crazy
> than your Spartan ancestors? Could you be more specific? :-)
>

A delusion is defined as a fixed false belief which is not in keeping with
the patient's culture or subculture. The last part is added because
otherwise all sorts of human beliefs would be called delusional. But I can
only tell you that outside of the US, the American attitude to guns is
mystifying. This is even more so because we are all very familiar with
American culture and consider Americans to be generally quite similar to
ourselves, unlike the ancient Spartans, for example.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
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