From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Wed Sep 29 1999 - 00:10:20 MDT
Kathryn Aegis wrote:
>
> John Grigg wrote:
> >I was just kidding on the idea of Mike and Joe duelling at ten paces! In
> >relation to the gun control debate between Mike Lorrey and Joe Dees I just
> >want to say both men have the right to discuss the matter but it does seem
> >to have been beaten to death here on the list.
>
> I was amazed to have returned after over a year's absence to find it still
> going on! And it had already turned ugly a few years ago. An essay posted
> to the extropian list, relating the gun debate to my own views on
> transhumanist tenets, had somehow been forwarded to an NRA listserve. Boy,
> was that a fun week--I gave up on trying to craft any rational reply to the
> emails that flooded in.
Interesting. I would be interested to find out who did that. I state
that I did not do that.
>
> Attempts have been made to have moderated discussions of guns and gun
> control regulations on some of the more serious news shows here. Sadly,
> several of the spokespersons no longer are invited onto television because
> of their conduct during those discussions. I say sadly, because this is a
> discussion that badly needs to be had, publicly and rationally.
>
Yes it does. However in my experience it is frustratingly difficult to
have rational discussions with people who have unreasoning fears of
inanimate objects, no matter WHAT that inanimate object is. Consider the
typical anti-gun advocate on tv exhibits such behavior, which in all
fairness may be simply due to a ferverent beleif in their cause. Then
again, most tyrannies start from those with ferverent beliefs exploiting
an unreasoning fear in some part of the population....
While the typical definition of insanity is a state of mind that is out
of touch with the normal state of mind, what do you do when the alleged
normal person's state of mind seems to be filled with unreasoning fears
of inanimate objects? Is the norm to be judged to be insane? The same
was once said of the population of Germany.
Mike Lorrey
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