Quote of the day—Joe Douglas

Raising the age for purchasing guns, eliminating assault weapons and tightening screening for people wanting to purchase guns might be good things. But none of those measures would have prevented this incident. Unfortunately — sadly — we have developed a culture of violence, intolerance and a lack of restraint in personal behavior. Conflicts — on the highway, the internet or in the classroom — too often are addressed by violence or the threat of violence.

We need to find our way to a different approach to both our personal and to the world’s problems. We need a foreign policy in which military threat no longer is considered a reasonable option. In which we seek to understand the viewpoint of others and try to find ways to help rather than to simply expect acquiescence to our demands.

Joe Douglas
May 27, 2018
Letter to the editor: Culture of violence
[I am perplexed. Could this person really be this naïve? Or is it a case of crap for brains?

What if the viewpoint of others is, as it is in some cases, “Convert to our religion or die.”? Or “Give me all your money and maybe I won’t kill you.”? Or, “We are implementing the final solution to the Jewish problem.”?

Or how about in our everyday life? “Obey law or we will use as much violence as is needed to put you in jail and/or force you to pay a fine.”

Violence, or the threat of it, is an essential part of a modern civil society. Public shaming and ostracizing people may come close to working in a small tribe. But as the “community” gets larger it loses it’s effectiveness. Once there are population centers of 1000s or tens of thousands and some with millions of people violence is the thread by which the social fabric is created.

It is required that the individual be willing and able to enforce civility when the criminals, private, or government sponsored, make clear their intentions to violate the social fabric of civil society. This is why we have a government guarantee, for whatever that is worth, that our right to keep and bear arms will not be infringed.—Joe]

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2 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Joe Douglas

  1. There is a rather stupidly done Star Trek Next Generation scene wherein Ensign Crusher is being tested for admission to Starfleet Academy. He is bumped in a doorway by alien humanoid David Hasselhof, who then states that Crusher was a clumsy oaf who should be ashamed of himself. Crusher spits back, “Do you want this to escalate to violence?” At which the alien Hasselhof laughs, slaps Crusher on the back in a friendly way, and walks away.

    Crusher explains to his fellow test takers that he recognized the humanoid by his webbed fingers (of course) as a certain species that valued direct, honest social interaction over civil niceties, and that responding with a logical but unseemly warning about possible violence as a challenge to rudeness by the alien was the correct situational response.

    That long story can be summarized as follows: Everyone knows that society can vary from civil politeness to anarchic violence at the will of the least stable-minded among us. The proper response to incivility is to demand civil politeness at risk of violent self defensive responses for anything else.

    Other people don’t get to be rude or criminally violent without consequences, or the incentives will be rewarding rudeness and criminal violence.

  2. Yet. I have stopped flipping off rude, dangerous drivers. Just in case.

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