Around Every Corner

Trey Smith

As Dennis Prager argued in the National Review, no one fears being massacred by a "decent" person. We fear being massacred by someone bad.
~ from The Conservative Philosophy of Tragedy: Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People by Jill Filipovic ~

This brings me back to the point in the first post on this article early this morning. Conservatives believe that each of us is born evil and that the role of church and society is to whip us into shape. Understanding that church and state don't have a perfect record, there are bogeyman waiting around every corner to do us in.

As Laozi cautions in the Tao Te Ching, amassing material wealth and then flaunting it in other people's faces is the cause of great amounts of stress and tension. Your life becomes centered around what you possess and you will be ever fearful that real and imaginary threats exist to wrest these material possessions from you.

In such a world, EVERYONE is suspect, even family and close associates. In such a world, there truly is only one "decent" person you can count on: Yourself. When you look in the mirror, you somehow don't see that you have become anything but decent.

One or more guns makes you feel powerful. Maybe you can't trust anyone, but you CAN kill them.