The real America
Dec. 20th, 2012 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnTomorrow, according to a calendar hacked out of stone thousands of years ago, we enter a new age. Let me close this one by saying something that I need to get out, and then perhaps I can move on.
America had its Dunblane last week. Knowing that Newtown is only a couple of hours away from where I live rather than far away where I've never been makes it seem all the more frightening... the tragedy doesn't bear thinking about. And in its aftermath, this and the shooting in Colorado only a couple of months ago have brought to the surface a very uncomfortable part of American society.
The attitude to guns is one of the most stark contrasts between America and the life I used to know - virtually unheard of in Britain, the right to own them written into the law of the country here. It is unbelievable to me that people are treating the events of last Friday as a necessary evil in society that comes from the right of everyone to own these weapons, rather than something that must be acted upon and ensured is never repeated. The argument against increasing gun control is that when the next massacre happens, some bystander will be able to pull out their own gun and end it instantly - indeed, there are so many voices now actively encouraging people to arm themselves. And when I think about it, I don't know how to argue with this - it appears to be perfectly logical - but the idea of owning one is unthinkable to me, and I've never felt threatened. Perhaps I see it as a gesture of confidence in my own safety without taking part in an arms race.
I can't lie - guns scare me. And I feel that this is the correct attitude, being weapons that can propel metal very fast over a great distance. Indeed, I've known people who keep and handle them responsibly - and I want everything possible done to make sure that they only stay in the hands of people like them. But even saying that is me making a compromise to American society - after Dunblane, restrictions on the ownership of handguns were tightened to the point of making them completely illegal, and I've heard no word on why, while these laws work well enough in Australia, in Britain and in so many other first-world countries, they would instantly dissolve America into a lawless Wild West. What a hideous culture these people must live in, that the only way to ensure your own safety is to trust nobody and to own a bigger gun than those around you.
The other avenue to take from this is to improve the quality and availability of mental health services - another thing that we've seen attempted and actively opposed over the last few years. Can you imagine living in a world where every step towards becoming more like the society you used to live in is treated with such utter revulsion? The greatest problems with America can be summed up in its ignorant pride - it believes that it must by definition be the best at everything. A friend of a friend mentioned he'd stopped reading what I write this year because of its "anti-American content" - to these people, any suggestion that something isn't right is treated as dissent, and it's because of them that America is so much less than what it could be.
The reason that I feel so suffocated by all of this despite living in such a liberal part of the country is that American patriotism has been hijacked by extreme conservatives, making this invulnerable ignorance appear to be the baseline of American values - and it's impossible to shut it out. There is a fad that I saw starting in 2008, strengthening during the effort to improve health care, and that has been making a resurgence over the last few days - that of judging someone on whether they are a "real American", with these opinions and values, settling for what America is and not what it could be, not caring what the rest of the world thinks about it - if you don't share their views, then you're a fake, defective, wrong.
Well, I am not a real American. And according to the criteria of these people, none of my friends who live here would be either, despite having as much right to the term as anyone could possibly have. But if, in this country that is meant to have and accept such diversity, being a "real American" is to be as loud, closed-minded, stubborn and backward as these people are... then not being a real American is the greatest compliment that I could hope for anyone.
America had its Dunblane last week. Knowing that Newtown is only a couple of hours away from where I live rather than far away where I've never been makes it seem all the more frightening... the tragedy doesn't bear thinking about. And in its aftermath, this and the shooting in Colorado only a couple of months ago have brought to the surface a very uncomfortable part of American society.
The attitude to guns is one of the most stark contrasts between America and the life I used to know - virtually unheard of in Britain, the right to own them written into the law of the country here. It is unbelievable to me that people are treating the events of last Friday as a necessary evil in society that comes from the right of everyone to own these weapons, rather than something that must be acted upon and ensured is never repeated. The argument against increasing gun control is that when the next massacre happens, some bystander will be able to pull out their own gun and end it instantly - indeed, there are so many voices now actively encouraging people to arm themselves. And when I think about it, I don't know how to argue with this - it appears to be perfectly logical - but the idea of owning one is unthinkable to me, and I've never felt threatened. Perhaps I see it as a gesture of confidence in my own safety without taking part in an arms race.
I can't lie - guns scare me. And I feel that this is the correct attitude, being weapons that can propel metal very fast over a great distance. Indeed, I've known people who keep and handle them responsibly - and I want everything possible done to make sure that they only stay in the hands of people like them. But even saying that is me making a compromise to American society - after Dunblane, restrictions on the ownership of handguns were tightened to the point of making them completely illegal, and I've heard no word on why, while these laws work well enough in Australia, in Britain and in so many other first-world countries, they would instantly dissolve America into a lawless Wild West. What a hideous culture these people must live in, that the only way to ensure your own safety is to trust nobody and to own a bigger gun than those around you.
The other avenue to take from this is to improve the quality and availability of mental health services - another thing that we've seen attempted and actively opposed over the last few years. Can you imagine living in a world where every step towards becoming more like the society you used to live in is treated with such utter revulsion? The greatest problems with America can be summed up in its ignorant pride - it believes that it must by definition be the best at everything. A friend of a friend mentioned he'd stopped reading what I write this year because of its "anti-American content" - to these people, any suggestion that something isn't right is treated as dissent, and it's because of them that America is so much less than what it could be.
The reason that I feel so suffocated by all of this despite living in such a liberal part of the country is that American patriotism has been hijacked by extreme conservatives, making this invulnerable ignorance appear to be the baseline of American values - and it's impossible to shut it out. There is a fad that I saw starting in 2008, strengthening during the effort to improve health care, and that has been making a resurgence over the last few days - that of judging someone on whether they are a "real American", with these opinions and values, settling for what America is and not what it could be, not caring what the rest of the world thinks about it - if you don't share their views, then you're a fake, defective, wrong.
Well, I am not a real American. And according to the criteria of these people, none of my friends who live here would be either, despite having as much right to the term as anyone could possibly have. But if, in this country that is meant to have and accept such diversity, being a "real American" is to be as loud, closed-minded, stubborn and backward as these people are... then not being a real American is the greatest compliment that I could hope for anyone.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-22 03:05 pm (UTC)The trouble, though, is that the argument assumes a best case scenario. It conjures up images of valiant, responsible defenders (self-insertion is encouraged) dispensing justice upon some imaginary criminal, and coming to the aid of his or her fellow citizens. But when any not-yet-a-criminal idiot can get his hands on a gun, the ratio of those to the truly responsible people who own them must be staggering.
I don't even know that I trust myself with a gun - because even though I'm sure I would be responsible, I'm also human and flawed and situations can escalate - much less the seemingly shocking amount of people that are just incredibly stupid and irresponsible.
So the argument assumes that the people handling the guns are going to be A) Responsible and B) In a position to even do anything effective, rather than just escalate a problem. And it just doesn't work that way. Logic or no, I personally feel much safer in a country where every idiot with an itchy trigger finger can't get their hands on a gun, much less a high-powered one.
But one problem that Australia, Britain and similar places don't necessarily face is that, because of America's second amendment and gun culture, guns are already very prevalent there. Stricter laws wouldn't make the already huge amount of them just disappear, so the idea of allowing citizens to be armed with the same power as the criminals does have merit. But you're right - the ignorant, "We are the best and you'd better shut up with your Anti-American crap" attitude really does fly in the face of the more sensible idea that they should at least be trying to fix things and do better. No society that already thinks it's perfect can ever improve - and it needs to.
And I mean, even if criminals still would be able to get their hands on guns through illegal methods, surely not all of them would? Surely making them harder to get would still have a positive effect on the violent crime rate? It would certainly make the problems of violence-escalation and crimes of passion much less serious, if the average person doesn't have a gun.
If guns are to be made available to responsible people, then "responsible people" needs to be defined. Background checks just aren't enough. I'm quite happy with them just being in the hands of trained professionals or people who can demonstrate a real need for them, to be honest.
But one thing that worries me is with the political climate in America seeming, at times, to be so rampantly conservative, its constitution is the only thing holding a lot of its citizens' rights together. At least, it's cited often enough in the defense of these rights. If the second amendment were to be expunged - as necessary and sensible as it seems - it would set a worrying precedent that could then be used to trample all over everything else.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-24 03:12 am (UTC)When I lived in Scotland, I lived across the street from the only licensed gun shop (a hunting and outdoors place) in the entire region. And yet I hardly gave it a second thought - so few people are licensed to own them and the threat of them falling into the wrong hands... just didn't seem to exist.