Gun Control, Mental Illness and Violence

The hearings on gun control in Congress Wednesday were instructive, not so much for what was said, but what wasn't. I'm not about to argue with Gabby Giffords though; anyone who gets shot in the head and survives can say pretty much whatever they want, in front of Congress, IMO. Which everything she said is basically true, esp that there are too many children dying violent deaths.

Who's children is an important point too, though most conversations about children in this country are sure to be confused. The Right would argue for the fetus to be declared a child, as example, but don't on the whole give a damn about chemical industrial pollutants in the womb, or that a blanket social taboo against abortion would inevitably terrorize every woman who miscarries, on top of her sorrow, that she will be accused and suffer the consequences of righteously outlawed abortion. The Left would presume to shelter every child from every harm, but fail to question their beloved President for dropping bombs on kids, and by extension the global economic/military empire we maintain, terrorizing kids everywhere. The Left and the Right will generally drug their children with a panoply of hard core pharmaceuticals before they would say, throw out the TV? When I was in the ninth grade I had a history teacher who was also a football coach, who made us "memorize" a list of accomplishments of every President, all of it out of context of course. Presumably my time might have been better spent learning something useful (like the meaning of fractional reserve currency, privately controlled, perhaps, and where it fits in the historical context.) 

I was in a school the other day, at my niece's science camp. It was mostly a lesson in waste, and the extraordinary patience of teachers. I was offered a meal, with everything - sandwich, carrots, cheese, egg, greens, fruit - individually wrapped, and the whole wrapped again. I was hungry but I declined it. I heard a Microsoft guy tell all the kids that the future was about robotics and ALL the good paying jobs would be in engineering, and robots will do everything else. If the kids had actually been listening, I might have interrupted, "well what is everyone else who isn't an engineer going to be doing?" He probably would have said, 'watching tv,' and all the kids would have laughed. To which I would have replied if it had seemed appropriate, 'well, you don't think all those people who aren't going to have jobs are expendable, do you?' The moral of all this, being, some of us have a more nuanced threshold of what can be characterized as violence.
         
There are several things you will not ever hear about in the American mainstream media, Left or Right, in the current gun-control debate - not the least of which is the relationship between American consumption of heavy weaponry, and our vast military empire. (The Left being in denial about said empire, the Right champions of.) Almost no one in the MSM is asking Obama to stop killing people including Americans, including women and children, with drones. Meanwhile this Democratic Administration leads America ever closer to a total surveillance state. The Constitutional Lawyer President having given himself the right to detain Americans indefinitely, and kill them, gets re-elected and the Left and Right would give this guy a de-facto database of every gun purchaser in the country. But the Right NEVER criticizes the guy for his predation on civil liberties otherwise, unless said civil liberties have to do with guns, or the plunder of earth's resources basically (that they think, contrary to all available evidence, that O stands in the way of their oil and gas fracking, pipeline building, etc.)

Like I said in a recent article at the Doomstead Diner:

MSM, it is safe to say, is become a black art of dissimulation, Bernays vision fully realized. For a brief moment, let us focus on the gun debate. First of all, there was never supposed to be a standing military here in America. Standing armies, the founders knew, become a fraternity of mercenaries and professional soldiers, who care to do little but soldiering, who become the tools of tyrants who destroy the core principles of any republic (generally ) Second of all, any weapon, standard-issue in time of war, to the infantry, should be available to ANY adult citizen who displays competency. Such a well regulated militia was meant to be the guard against the herding unto tyranny/war/genocide. Third, we were never supposed to be entangled in other country’s bizness....

 I do not own a gun. I do not intend on buying one. I figure, if I ever need one, the universe will provide. That's good enough for me.

In part I don't worry about owning a gun, because guns feel perfectly comfortable in my hands, after a child-hood and young-adulthood hunting. At the same time, many of my fellow Americans seem to be of the opinion that there is not hardware enough. Many of them I am assuming not having any idea how to shoot such hardware. Meanwhile, the Feds and law enforcement generally, increasingly militarized. Again, from 2013: Thus Far, America:

So what are they talking about now? National database, gun “buy backs”, guns left at the shooting range? (See Australia) What did the MSM have to say about the 450 Million .40 cal hollow point rounds, DHS alone purchased in 2012, or the billion+ rounds they purchased total, of various calibre? Nada. Nothing. And that hardware is just DHS. That doesn’t include CIA, FBI, NSA, DEA, ATF, et al Fed, State and Local law enforcement, and all the decommissioned weaponry of Afghanistan and Iraq, heaped upon them. From a strictly strategic standpoint, American’s are going to need a hell of a lot of AR-15 .223cal rifles, well-organized, to fend off the State with all those .40cal hollow points, domestic surveillance apparatus, drones, etc. That doesn’t even count the Military. Assuming all that hardware is facing the people, and not turned back against the State, of course, should trouble start (see, I do have faith in Americans). But the job of the MSM, you see, is to support the State, not question it

In case no one has noticed, war making and law enforcement is a thing that after 12 years of war, is deeply embeded in our troubled economy, ever seeking to justify itself economically, to wield what power it has and to gain more. You will not hear the MSM discuss how afraid the rest of the world is of our military strength any more than you will hear it discussed, American's fear of their government, and of our law enforcement that has become deeply predatory - except to mock our fear. It is legal in this country, in this State, for the Minneapolis police, Hennepin County Sheriff, Minnesota State Troopers, NSA, DHS, FBI, DEA, any of these guys, to come into this house, find the flower of the most useful plant on the planet, cannabis, or not! and take my house and land from me, and everything in it. This sort of thing happens every day in America, though more, it is the seizure of cash, and cars, and otherwise a general sadist humiliation and criminalization - a lot worse than that going on, too. Meanwhile if you are an International banker you get to launder billions of dollars of illicit (and CIA) drug money. Meanwhile there are more drones in the sky every day. It's pretty clear at this point, any kind of weaponized uprising, in any isolated spot in America would be snuffed out without any great difficulty. So yeah, many Americans are terrified of their government. But again, you don't hear about any of that in the MSM, except to mock it, like I said.

I mean, who isn't aware that here in America, there are more people in jail or under the thumb of law enforcement, than anywhere else in history, in real numbers and per-capita. Many of these prisons PRIVATELY OWNED, INCENTIVIZED. The CEO of the largest private prison system in America makes more money in 2.5 days than I have ever made in one year in my life. (See military, deeply imbedded in troubled economy.) 

Meanwhile, the debate about gun control as defined by the MSM has been about identifying the mentally ill? LOL. Brave New World America. Where we LOVE our servitude. Which, if you think locking down on private gun ownership while failing to address rampant consumerism or militaristic imperialism or predatory authority or privately controlled currency, is going to do something to end violence, yer by def. loony tunes.

That said, I council not dwelling on imagery of violence. No sense in cultivating more of what is mono-culturally sewn, widely. Better to cultivate your own private mental garden, where peace and quiet reign. And maybe figure out a way to steer clear of the lunacy on both sides, sort of like a fox, or something like it? The control freaks Left and Right are sure to kill each other off, eventually, right?

I mean, do you get that these guys at the NRA are basically asking for the same thing the Feds want? A de-facto national database, a military/police presence in the schools (and in public generally eventually), and as much fuckin HARDWARE as can be produced. They say background check information will legally have to be erased within 24 hrs, bla bla, but if you think this government that is hell-bent on capturing every digital communication on earth, and perhaps even on the verge of it, if not already there, is going to erase info that says who is buying a gun (or isn't going to make buying and owning a gun basically contingent on an oath to the military/police state?) If you trust these guys, I have an island for sale, cheap. It's super cold there, but it's melting. More like a continent actually, and it's kinda hard to get to, and there's some other claims, but it's big and mostly empty...LOL

There used to be a name for that sort of thing, military presence in schools and such: Fascism, creeping. The death of fun indeed. I mean, you do get that all these money changers and uber-government types are basically the descendents of Augustus unt Mein Fuhrer, right? And the money changers are funding all sides, flooding the world with weaponry? 

Well, like John said in the comments of my elegy to Aaron Swartz, if Brave New World doesn't work out, there's always 1984 as a template.

(The garden is a template too. Something about the eating of the fruit of the Tree of Life, that we might recover our immortality? Just sayin'. Er, I guess, turn the whole world into a war zone/wasteland.)

BTW - Blessed Imbolc, said Brighid

And some great advice I heard from a master fishing-pole builder, Mel Dickie, 92: "stay alive, and enjoy life."