posted on Jan, 28 2013 @ 04:28 PM
Hi ATS!
My normal method of creating threads ( other than BTS chit chat and rant threads ) is customarily to do a lot of research, seek out a number of
seemingly legitimate sources ( the best available on any given subject ), use those sources to provide what I feel to be enough supporting external
content to offer proof to my assertions, and then to find a number of pictures and create a banner - because, honestly, threads with pictures,
banners, and a few Youtube vids really do seem to get more traffic.
Today I am neglecting all of those steps and am going to approach things differently. Today I am simply going to consolidate a few thoughts I've
posted elsewhere, in various threads, into one cohesive idea. It will be short, concise, and about as plain as it can be. So please forgive me if
you're a fan of the shiny things. Today I want the idea to matter - not the wrapping.
Since Sandy Hook a Second Amendment frenzy / schism has erupted throughout our culture. One that I find to be quite confusing and bizarre. A few of my
previous threads discuss the dangers of division - divide et impera - it is my humble opinion that this schism is yet another function of that
principle. Another brick in the wall, another wedge in the collective.
Furthermore, I find the arguments involved to be nearly comical. The screams that people need arms to defend themselves from a potentially tyrannical
government may well have held merit in 1778. But today they are laughable in application. Technology and progress of knowledge have truly rendered the
idea moot. Arm yourself as heavily as you wish. But the truth is that if the authorities want you? They'll get you, regardless of your arms. No
private citizen or group of private citizens is well armed enough to take on the military. The best one can hope for, through arms, is to kill a few
people before they die.
That is reality.
Another hole in the argument is that guns keep power in the hands of the masses and ensure Democratic process. I can only say that we lost control of
our Democracy a long time ago ( probably not long after the end of the Civil War ). People no longer matter. Corporations do. The legal process no
longer serves us, it serves those who can afford to bribe Congress to get laws that favor them passed. Lobbyists and the interests that control them
are running this machine - not the ballot box.
Besides - Google any third world nation, particularly those in northern Africa - and then try, with a straight face, to tell me that guns ensure
stability of government. The premise is flawed.
In truth nobody wants to discuss the real power that the people hold. Their wallets. We do have a vote that matters still, and we exercise it multiple
times each day. Our dollars now hold our power. This is the reality of life in the twenty-first century western world. Because of this the only real
way we possess, as a group, to create real change, is to control that aspect of our lives. To vote with our money.
This is something that few of us are willing to do. We refuse to do it because it means we'd have to go without the comforts and luxuries that we are
addicted to. We would have to actually suffer a bit to accomplish change. The truth is that most of us love to scream about how harsh we are and how
patriotic we are. We just don't want to be put out by it. Dying in a gunfight is an abstract, so it's preferable to the notion of not having cable
TV or soft drinks for a few days.
Take a few minutes to chew on that reality before you swallow. Because there is a lot of relevance here. We, as a people, are spoiled freaking rotten.
THAT is what gives Governments and Corporations power over us. And guns don't play a role here whatsoever. They are merely one small aspect of the
whole.
If you talked a million people into taking up arms against the Government - in some vain and misguided attempt to get your way? You'd only start a
political fiasco, at best, and a slaughter - at worst. But convince those same million people to stop spending? You'd get attention, rather quickly.
YOU would, effectively, become a lobbyist and, suddenly, you'd find that YOU mattered as much as the other lobbyists. You would have the attention of
those in power.
Get ten million to stop spending for a week? You'd not only have the same authority as a lobbying organization, you'd effectively be the most
important lobbyist in the country.
Get a hundred million to stop spending? YOU would have carte blanche and the full attention of the whole machine. You'd be in a position to create
real, long term, meaningful change.
There aren't enough guns in existence to match that power.
My point? If you really want a revolution? Learn the proper way to have one before you get yourself and a lot of other people killed in an empty and
already lost fight.
~Heff