Common Sense
by James the History Cat
James, a connoisseur of history. In human history, ignorance has never resulted in bliss. |
We call this a Christian country because the majority of the voting populace call themselves Christians. There is a strong tendency for believers to feel about political issues the way they feel about their religious tenets; that there is no room for compromise, and that the principles governing each issue are somehow related to pleasing and serving The Almighty. God and Country have philosophically become one. So compromise on gun legislation means a slippery slope to one day not being able to defend God's America from people who want to destroy our freedoms, and therefore there can be no movement but forward. There exists a whole raft of fear-filled reasoning greasing that slope, but I think you get the idea.
What we actually value is money and power. If you follow the money, you can determine the true motivation of anything. Special interests have spent ample time and resources molding and marketing specific issue-related fears and selling them to you as your own. Critical thinking requires careful thought, and it challenges sacred icons. It is a painful process, and one we have abandoned for a more palatable diet of quick sound bites and biased media commentary. Prepackaged philosophies render voters emotionally content and keep political lobbies in business.
The problem is not gun control. It is our inability to hold two or more seemingly opposing thoughts in our head at one time. It is not being willing to compromise on anything. It is not accepting common sense legislation because we are told it conflicts with quasi-religious political dogma. This is why our children are vulnerable, not just to guns, but to every potential danger that a profit-driven political policy can produce.
Special interest organizations hire psychologists and political strategists to determine key arguments that will motivate 'uniformed voters'. What a compliment to the American voting public, that rich self-promoting people rely on the support of an ignorant, lazy and fearful populace that can no longer discern ethical truth. I like to think that one day we will prove them wrong.
"And here, without anger or resentment I bid you farewell. Sincerely wishing,
that as men and Christians, ye may always fully and uninterruptedly enjoy every
civil and religious right; and be, in your turn, the means of securing it to
others; but that the example which ye have unwisely set, of mingling religion
with politics, may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America."
-Thomas Paine, 'Common Sense'