From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 05:52:07 MDT
Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> James Rogers and Mike Lorrey wrote stuff about the socially calming
> benefits of gun ownership in response to my comments about:
>
> >> > a bunch of soccer thugs in Britain
> >> > They just lerrrrved smacking and bashing
> >> > the shit out of other people. Their blood was up, it boiled with rage and
> >> > delight, they had flow and peak experience.
>
> I foolishly ended this post with a throwaway remark about personal weaponry.
>
> The guys said:
>
> >> Perhaps populations that "pack heat" have more evolved level of maturity,
> >> or at least personal responsibility, than those that don't. One thing is
> >> for certain: broadly armed populations definitely select for these traits.
>
> >An armed society creates an implied threat that shuts up loudmouths,
> >tones down the emotionally heated, and essentially spontaneously
> >organizes a polite society.
>
> Well, that's a relief. And here I was supposing that I'd drawn attention,
> by analogy, to something deeply worrying about a future where, say,
> nanotech minting provides much of the essentials of life very cheap or
> free, where AI displaces most of the brain-based jobs, and where many
> healthy young people will be stressed by the lack of extrinsic meaning in
> their otherwise comfortable lives.
A better question for the short term is to ask what is it about society
in nations where such things occur that not only causes or contributes
to this happening, but also what is that allows it to continue? We don't
have such problems here in the US over any sport I know of.
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