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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2016-09-25 23:03, spike wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"
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style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">>>…Had
the congress the legal right to legislate away
Americans’ right to bear arms, they would have done it
a long time ago.</span></p>
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Actually, if the voters pressured Congress in a consistent manner it
could pass an amendment to amend the second amendment. It is
evidently not impossible to change a constitution legally.<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">In
a time when this heavily armed (and crazy) nation is on the
verge of electing one of two presidential candidates such as
these, both of whom have expressed intentions of violate law
and the one who already has while in office, aren’t you glad
we have a second amendment? Me too. </span></p>
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<br>
Seriously? It is not enough to actually unseat a tyrant, but it is
enough for a low-level insurgency destroying your country. Imagine a
situation where about half of the population thinks the election was
stolen, and an armed minority use their arms to take potshots at the
government (that of course responds with the excessive means it has,
feeding the hatred) or supporters of the other side (who of course
think they have a right and ability to defend themselves). Doesn't
sound very good for democracy or liveability.<br>
<br>
Every society has cultural myths about what it is, how it was
founded, and what is valuable. These make a culture work, but they
can become counterproductive or even malign. In the US it is pretty
obvious (at least to outsiders) that the gun myth ("guns guarantee
freedom since they enabled the revolution") is making society
paranoid (because it implies one should not trust government,
because your neighbours are armed, and because your police is
paranoid about all those guns so it becomes more military and
dangerous), places emphasis on arms rather than good governance, and
blocks analysis (since it turns the whole thing into a right, which
is interpreted as an eternal moral right rather than a legal
allowance). I don't know you can change this, or even if you should,
but the price you pay is pretty steep.<br>
<br>
(Being an expat/immigrant of a philosophical bent makes me curious
about how societies work, their myths, and their myth-pathologies.
It is just that in most cases their are somewhat less directly
lethal. The Swedish "we have solved all social problems" and the
British "we are one society" myths have some bad pathologies too,
but few people get shot because of them.)<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
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