All societies are organized around some principles.
Tribal. Ethnic. Right of Kings. Religion. The unseen movement in
history. All societies have some organizing principles
America was organized by people who took the idea of liberty and the inherent value of the individual that was swirling around in the Enlightenment and made those ideas concrete in law. They adopted "isonomy," the equality of political rights. In On Revolution, in 1963, Hannah Arendt wrote "Isonomy guaranteed … equality, but not because all men were born or created equal, but, on the contrary, because men were by nature ... not equal, and needed an artificial institution, the polis, which by virtue of its νόμος would make them equal." Every man, regardless of his background or qualities, was equal before the law. This equality was not granted by the state, it was protected by the state.
They were as a group fearful of administrative power and did not trust the government to do the right thing or to do the right thing well. And this concept of equality through isonomy, liberty and personal responsibility was held in common among their fellow citizens.
The murders in Orlando were committed by a guy with allegiance to a different, higher, law than ours. He was following the dictates of an ancient set of rules he believed are the laws of God. Those laws trumped our laws. Now that makes law-making sticky as the general situation in America has included an agreement among the citizenry on the basics. This guy--and guys like him--do not agree on our basics and our legal concepts simply do not apply to him.
The essence of this country is that a primary legal agreement has been set up as the foundation of law and behavior. Dissent should be tolerated but no one in the United State should be allowed to oppose its founding principles. Citizenship and immigration to this country should hinge upon that idea as well. Anti-democratic, anti-liberty minorities advocating their own violent solutions to the problems of some group have been rightfully suppressed in the past from the Klan to the homicidal Marxists. That was the essence of the Civil War. It should be our essence now.
There may come a point where the Second Amendment will be seen in the light of "I do not trust the government to do the right thing or the right thing well but I trust my fellow citizens less."
That will be a sea change in America.
America was organized by people who took the idea of liberty and the inherent value of the individual that was swirling around in the Enlightenment and made those ideas concrete in law. They adopted "isonomy," the equality of political rights. In On Revolution, in 1963, Hannah Arendt wrote "Isonomy guaranteed … equality, but not because all men were born or created equal, but, on the contrary, because men were by nature ... not equal, and needed an artificial institution, the polis, which by virtue of its νόμος would make them equal." Every man, regardless of his background or qualities, was equal before the law. This equality was not granted by the state, it was protected by the state.
They were as a group fearful of administrative power and did not trust the government to do the right thing or to do the right thing well. And this concept of equality through isonomy, liberty and personal responsibility was held in common among their fellow citizens.
The murders in Orlando were committed by a guy with allegiance to a different, higher, law than ours. He was following the dictates of an ancient set of rules he believed are the laws of God. Those laws trumped our laws. Now that makes law-making sticky as the general situation in America has included an agreement among the citizenry on the basics. This guy--and guys like him--do not agree on our basics and our legal concepts simply do not apply to him.
The essence of this country is that a primary legal agreement has been set up as the foundation of law and behavior. Dissent should be tolerated but no one in the United State should be allowed to oppose its founding principles. Citizenship and immigration to this country should hinge upon that idea as well. Anti-democratic, anti-liberty minorities advocating their own violent solutions to the problems of some group have been rightfully suppressed in the past from the Klan to the homicidal Marxists. That was the essence of the Civil War. It should be our essence now.
There may come a point where the Second Amendment will be seen in the light of "I do not trust the government to do the right thing or the right thing well but I trust my fellow citizens less."
That will be a sea change in America.
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