I joined in recently in an on-line discussion of the gun
control diatribe (masquerading as dialogue). It wasn’t really a dialogue at all
– just a bunch of angry, self-righteous people haranguing each other for the
audacity to hold fast to a belief other than their own. So-called pacifists
screaming (as best they can over internet type) at staunch defenders of their
Second Amendment right to have a gun of their choice to defend their family and
property; and the latter’s expletive-laden vitriol about how he will either
kill or go to jail to defend that right.
That is not dialogue, and it is one of three main problems
that lie at the source of this breakdown. The first problem is that there can
no longer be dialogue. We have lost the
ability to discuss and dialogue with each other; unless of course you agree
with absolutely everything I say, in which case, I contend, it is not dialogue.
True dialogue is an exchange of ideals wherein listening occurs and through
which both parties are changed. Dialogue is a creative resolution starting with
opposing or differing points of view that results in a new, previously
impossible (or improbable) thought. It cannot be reached when both parties
start from the absolute point of view that I am right and you are dead wrong, and
operate from a fundamental dualistic logic.
Right/wrong dualism renders anything the other person says automatically
wrong and therefore not-listened-to. Where is the dialogue in that? So as a
result, congress and my Facebook friends simply engage in angry positioning and
demeaning name-calling.
But that is only one part of it. The second source problem within the
gun-control diatribe is that we have evolved into a state where we expect laws,
legislation and other people to do the hard work or moral decision-making and
critical thinking for us. It takes a ton of developmental work to build the
capacity to think critically and in a fully mature way about such complex
issues as justice, gun-control, global warming, sexual ethics, reproductive
rights and human dignity (to name a few). These and other issues like them as
immensely complex dilemmas that have no single or simple solutions. Yet as a
society we want the simple solution; we want the silver bullet; we want
washboard abs with only 15 seconds of exercise a day.
Thirdly, we have de-evolved into a society who expects that
if something is wrong, we can just take a pill to fix it, and that just is not
the way things happen. And within that, we hold the expectation that someone
else will do it for us. Dear friends, it is not up to someone else (be that
chemistry and pharmaceuticals or law-makers and their polity) to solve our
problems for us. These are ours and we need to take ownership and
responsibility for the issues we have. Having a law that polices how guns are
sold (we have one), or requiring background checks, or magazine sizes will not
solve the problem of accountability and responsibility.
So the long and short of it is that there is a way out or
through this fiasco, but it will take a huge amount of work. First and
foremost, we need to take full responsibility not only for the creation of a
solution but for the control and use of any firearms out there. In a way the
platitude that “guns don’t kill; people do” is right. But until every person
who owns or sells, or touches weapons of any sort (let’s throw crossbows and
bows and other forms of weaponry in there) takes full accountability of how
each weapon is responsibly used, we will continue to have the problem of
weapons getting into “the wrong hands.” We need to develop the lost skill of
critical thinking to begin to address complex problems and complex solutions in
a more mature and rational way. But
above all, we need to re-learn the art of true dialogue. That is a tall order, but the consequences of
ignoring the source issues are too costly; innocent children’s lives being
snuffed out before they have even begun to live; malls and theatres becoming
unsafe places to go; and young men thinking that the resolution of an argument
is drawing and firing some sexy weapon. When the statistics are frightening
enough perhaps the work will be done.
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