Another Day In Paradise
Sunday, late summertime is fine here. Sunshine, the beds of flowers display a riot of life and colors. But not so everywhere. In the aftermath of the Maui wildfires the death toll stands at 93 so far. Did anyone think a tropical paradise could be vulnerable to wildfires? Neighborhoods wiped out, now become skeletal ash heaps.
Yesterday an old friend commented via email about the rising rate of suicide in our country. He opined that the availability of guns, the shear number of handguns was irrelevant to the quantifiable rise in despair culminating in suicide. I on the other hand hold a contrary point of view. We’ve exchanged ideas before about our different visions of reality. He reveres the constitution as if it were god-given, inviolate, especially the 2nd amendment — “right to bear arms.”
Yes, the irreconcilable difference of opinions, indescribable psychic agony ending in suicide, and a country awash in weapons,– are further snap-shots of paradise.
I offer this proposal, a 21st century icon for what it means to-be-a-real-man. Forget about Clint Eastwood with the 44 Magnum in his hand, forget about Charlton Heston daring anyone to take his guns… This guy is my ideal “man.”
What anchors your life, what would you hold high while “going under”?
13 thoughts on “Another Day In Paradise”
Hello Jerry,
Your comment about me, “He reveres the constitution as if it were god-given, inviolate, especially the 2nd amendment — “right to bear arms.” is a bit off the mark, I revere rules, which any society needs to live by. Our Constitution is a set of rules, and it can be changed as witnessed by the amendments added to it. Would you like to play a game without rules? there would be no point. I also shouldn’t be charged, as you suggest, with believing it, and the 2nd amendment, is god-given as I don’t believe there is a God who gave us anything. The Constitution was created by men who knew the foibles of men. There are rules of all kinds, how to run meetings, how operate a vehicle and a whole lot more. When proceeding through an intersection after getting a green light the rules tell me that most likely the on coming traffic will stop, I like that.
Your “snap-shots of paradise” comment is a bit sarcastic, “NO?”
As for the last comment I don’t have the ideal of the real man being a Dirty Harry. He is just another Hollywood movie depicting what life would be like without rules.
Clearly expressed. Rules are important and essential. Behind the rules, are ideals, which we regard as inviolate, no matter whether one practices a form of Christianity or a secular atheism… What “ideals” do we revere, as patterns for the rules which we have made?
I contend that the myths, stories which we continue to tell ourselves: the America of manifest destiny, of America as the essential-nation are the mythic patterns behind the curtain. The 2nd amendment, understood as legal right to own as many, of any kind of weapon except full-auto military arms is the concrete manifestation of this old myth.
I contend that the old myths are killing us, really killing us.
The comment about paradise was meant to be sarcastic. Yes, this is the only paradise we are going to ever have… This is it.
What on Earth is “ideal” about a sugar-guzzling man who chooses to wear a wet bathrobe and slippers?
And really, what is the point of the eons-long obsession with distinguishing a “real” man? From what — an android robot? Any male person who survives childhood by definition becomes a man; no such instance is any more “real” than any other. No one obsesses like this about “real” (versus fake?) women, thank goodness!
Ideals are patterns, which, according to Plato provide the reason behind a myriad of imperfect empirical variants which we take to be real. Kant proposed that these were not eternal patterns at all but how the mind organizes sense experience, and C. G. Jung suggested these ideals are arch types, very old shared icons within our psyche… I offered the advertisement as an example of what “manhood” amounts to for many Americans. For others perhaps the “ideal man” seen in the drivers seat of a Dodge Ram truck, demonstrating the “hands-free” mode to his woman as they motor along a highway.
Not everyone of course subscribes to some form of idealism. I think it’s difficult to get along, without a distinction between the ideal and the empirically real.
Jerry, you speak of myths, how about the utopian myths floating all about? Our country its not perfect as the following numbers show There is a nice graph from CDC which won’t post here. So I’ll just give you the first and last years:
Suicide Murder
1968 10,911 9425
2021 26,328 20958
Note: Gun murders and suicides between 1968 and 1978 are classified by the CDC as involving firearms and explosives; those between 1979 and 2021 include
firearms only.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
If we would take out the ‘explosive’ numbers in the early years the increase would be even larger. What is the reason for the increase? Could it be population growth, or just more angry and depressed peopl?. Something is going on, WHAT? If we could remove all guns I’m sure those numbers would go down, I agree, but not all. But of course if we could remove all disagreeable speech it would also go down. Care to remove the 1st amendment too?
From PEW: ” In 2020, the most recent year for which the FBI has published data, handguns were involved in 59% of the 13,620 U.S. gun murders and non-negligent manslaughters for which data is available. Rifles – the category that includes guns sometimes referred to as “assault weapons” – were involved in 3% of firearm murders. Shotguns were involved in 1%. The remainder of gun homicides and non-negligent manslaughters (36%) involved other kinds of firearms or those classified as “type not stated.”
I remember not long ago many said they only wanted to take away rifles. Good Lord, they only amount to 3% of murders, and I assume suicides also. Well my, my, how you have changed, now you want all guns. What’s next?
As for your ideals:
“VIXI Memoirs of a Non-Belonger” by Richard Pipes p.57
Even if an ideology is morally sound, realizing it usually requires resorting to violence because society at large may not share it.
and
“Last Exit to Utopia” by Jean-François Revel p.53
“Ideology – that malignant invention for the human spirit’s dark side, an invention which has cost us dearly – has the singular property of causing zealots to project the structural features of their own mentality onto others. Ideologues cannot imagine that an objection to their abstract systems could come from any source other than a competing system.
All ideologies are aberrations. A sound and rational ideology cannot exist. Falsehood is intrinsic to ideology by virtue of cause, motivation and objective, which is to bring into being a fictional version for the human self – the “self,” at least, that has resolved no longer to accept reality as a source of information or a guide to action. When an ideology has died, it is nonsensical to think that another must promptly be found to take its place. So you replace one aberration with another aberration: what is this but surrender to yet one more mirage? ”
You may say the Constitution is also an ideology, no, it’s the law.
.
Interesting that when you mention flash point things such as the 2nd Amendment, it spurs folks to take up the arms of the mighty pen to express their justification over this issue. Why is it that guns (and the ubiquitous notion of true manhood) evoke such emotional responses? We live in a world that seems to be going backwards with regard to facts (guns actually do kill people – PERIOD) and the overall subjugation of women through a reinvention of machismo, be it here in this country or from religious zealots throughout the world, many of them having embraced violence in their cultures.
We live in highly uncertain times. Uncertainty breeds fear and fear drives people towards wanting to embrace their version of safety (more guns) and chest thumping in terms of protecting the clan. Neither of these characteristics actually works in the modern world, but these innate reactions drive people to believe they can have control over their environments, despite the FACT that they are actually making the world less safe.
The motto for the bulk of mankind should be: Don’t Think, Just React. This is indeed how the majority of our species goes through life.
A one last comment/question. Why are citizens of this country not allowed access to automatic weapons or hand grenades or rocket launchers? If someone can legally purchase an AK-47 or M-16 with monolithic ammunition clips and a bump stock why can’t they purchase the other weapons? If the 2nd Amendment is so all encompassing, why are there any restrictions at all? Seems rather arbitrary to me. If a group of mercenaries is marching towards my home, I think some land mines and a napalm thrower would be in order. Why should I be limited in the protection of my home? I mean any “well-regulated” militia should be able to arm themselves with whatever is appropriate, no?
Your last paragraph of musing, “why any limit at all upon the right to self defense,” is a helpful stimulus. What is at the end of this road that we are all taking? Conflict in these terms means that everyone dies, everything is ruined, without remedy…
So, you don’t like guns of any kind but if threatened you think “some land mines and a napalm thrower would be in order.”
Just pointing out the flaw in your argument – “why limit at all…”
Do you feel presently threatened?
Personally I don’t believe that weapons beyond perhaps a rifle for hunting, should be allowed in this country. And even then, people should be required to have a license and show that they have an understanding of the weapon and demonstrate an ability to use it in a responsible manner, much like a driver’s license. The reference to napalm and land mines was to make a point, not a plea for actually making them available for purchase. The country is crazy enough already.
But of course Tobin I knew that. May I suggest that you folks change the 2nd amendment, then it would be law. I have a concealed carry permit and yet don’t carry, I, as you suggest, don’t have to feel like a dirty Harry to be a man nor do any of my friends who are so armed. I do not walk around feeling afraid and hid behind my weapons, most of which are hand me downs. I’ve never shot anyone nor do I wish to ever do so. Your phantisies are so over done.
That you don’t carry a concealed weapon is of no comfort to me because there are any number (perhaps millions) of people in this country to who do carry guns, who do feel like they are safer for doing so, that they will be able to be the hero in some fantastical scenario, or even have thoughts of fighting against the perceived overlords of government. Was the January 6th insurrection a fantasy I made up? Are the hundreds of paramilitary units around the country in my imagination? Are the rightwing chatrooms with discussions of violence against those who don’t buy into the MAGA nonsense my own paranoia? Are the threats against liberals in general or even just citizens doing their duty by being on a grand jury machinations of the “liberal media”? Of course not, but many people believe this kind of behavior is more than justified and they justify it by pointing fingers at people who are attempting to raise the flags of sanity. Thems my two cents.
This covers many of the ideas above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahxqScHSQQY