Posted by
Andrews on Sunday, December 27, 2009 8:11:45 PM
There is something that struck me recently concerning the "hippie generation" of the mid to late 1960's. Actually, the observation goes back farther than that, and largely concerns gun control in general, but as it occurred to me in context of hippies, let me start there.
In the 1960's, a whole lot of leftists were ardent fans of fire arms. Not just Black Panthers arming for neighborhood defense, either. Many otherwise "peace and love" types had a gun fixation. I noticed this before, but it struck me when I was reading IMDB reviews of Dennis Hopper's "American Dreamer". All the modern leftists were confused by his thoughts on gun ownership, anachronistically calling them "right wing", which simply shows they do not realize that gun control was not a left-wing position in the 1960's. If anything, the "outlaw mystique" and paranoia about government made the radicals of the 1960's just a pro-gun as modern militia movements are. The sixties radicals would have never understood the modern liberal obsession with gun control.
And the truth is, gun control was never about peace and love, it has always been about control.
Historically, gun control has usually been the tool of either unpopular government, such as the arms bans enacted by several shogunates, or by Cromwell's government during periods of waning popularity, or else was imposed on subject people by occupying forces, such as the Spartans imposed on the helots. And in the US, arms control has largely followed something of a similar pattern, at least until recently, when justifications changed.
Prior to modern times, gun control existed in two forms. In the south, and later in northern cities which received large black populations during the black migration north, gun control was largely adopted to keep arms out of the hands of blacks. In the north, especially prior to the black migrations, gun control was almost entirely urban, centered on keeping guns out of the hands of the poor, and especially immigrants, for fear that they would "create disorder". In short, gun control was usually focused on keeping the government's control over groups seen as inferior.
And that was part of why the radicals of the 1960's were such fans of guns. While I disagree with the whole of their philosophy, they were right in fearing that gun control was all about maintaining government power. And that was why the radicals of the 1960's were not supporters of gun control. Not being part of "the establishment", they feared that gun control would basiclaly disenfranchise them and the minority and marginal groups they embraced.
Which makes the modern liberal fixation with gun control surprising. At least until one realizes that in the northeeast and west, especially in the cities, where gun control movements are strongest, the left has become the establishment. And, far from creating their egalitarian utopa, they have adopted the most detestable trait of the old establishment, assumed they alone are competent and everyone else needs "guidance", and have taken that to mean the use of force must be limited to the state*.
The result, paradoxically, is a far left that has adopted the very policies they so rabidly opposed only a few decades ago. And, even more strangely, which can't even understand why they once embraced ideas they now find incomprehensible.
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* Even the center, and some on the right, seem to misunderstand the Lockean social contract in this regard. How often have you heard we gave the power to use force to the state? That would suggest gun control is a legitimate legal enactment, as only the state should use force. The truth is (as I describe in "
My Vision of Government", "
My Vision of Government Part II", "
If We Were Consistent", "
An Unappreciated Truth", "
A Right Is A Right" and "
Symmetry and Asymmetry in Government"), we have
DEPUTIZED the state, allowed it to act on our behalf in protecting our rights. But we have not surrender those rights, cannot do so in fact, any more than I can surrender the right to life. The state acts on my behalf to make mutual defense more efficient and orderly, but I still retain every right to defend myself as well. And we on the right need to emphasize that point, or else moderates and center-right conservatives will give the left some convincing "social contract" arguments that make it sound like even the right supports gun control.