Double Naught Spy
New member
No, you are wrong. If accurate, it would only prove that guns were sold, but does not prove to whom.
I wonder what would happen if Atlas really did shrug?
- Thread starter MeekAndMild
- Start date
No, you are wrong. If accurate, it would only prove that guns were sold, but does not prove to whom.
Baba Louie
New member
As Robert Frost said "In three words I can sum up all I know about life: it goes on". Should x number of gun owners (you guys discuss quantity) decide to "shrug", ala Rand's Atlas, the world would move on. George Harrison wrote, "Life flows on within you and without you." A truth.
Should any group decide to pull a John Galt (please, no 60 page soliloquies) nowadays, they'd likely be branded "enemy combatants", especially if "armed and off their meds" and thus the target of the day.
Is it not better to stay motivated, activated and in the hunt, taking time off now and then to recharge the batteries... than to lay waste allowing others to muck things up so far as to reach point of no return hoping all the others notice the "no-players" and ask them to please get back in the game?
I don't know. But I'd bet that as Frost and Harrison wrote, life would continue in the "shruggers" absence and there might be some new rules they'd have to play by... which I doubt they would like.
For the children.
Should any group decide to pull a John Galt (please, no 60 page soliloquies) nowadays, they'd likely be branded "enemy combatants", especially if "armed and off their meds" and thus the target of the day.
Is it not better to stay motivated, activated and in the hunt, taking time off now and then to recharge the batteries... than to lay waste allowing others to muck things up so far as to reach point of no return hoping all the others notice the "no-players" and ask them to please get back in the game?
I don't know. But I'd bet that as Frost and Harrison wrote, life would continue in the "shruggers" absence and there might be some new rules they'd have to play by... which I doubt they would like.
For the children.
MeekAndMild
New member
Well said Baba Louie, and in the case of other interest groups I'd say you might be right. I wouldn't mind a general strike of drug dealers for instance. If they all took off a week or a lifetime off our society would benefit. How about TV writers? We didn't really miss their absence this winter.
But have you noticed that the class of gun owners contains a whole lot of people who might be considered "essential" to the working of the civilization? How about that broader class of citizens who need the right of self protection, including those who are presently prevented from being legal gun owners, such as New York cab drivers?
On another note, here is a really nice rendition of "This is John Galt Speaking" for those who have 45 minutes to listen to eloquent speechifying.
But have you noticed that the class of gun owners contains a whole lot of people who might be considered "essential" to the working of the civilization? How about that broader class of citizens who need the right of self protection, including those who are presently prevented from being legal gun owners, such as New York cab drivers?
On another note, here is a really nice rendition of "This is John Galt Speaking" for those who have 45 minutes to listen to eloquent speechifying.
MeekAndMild
New member
Double Naught Spy
New member
It is all and well and good to ponder such things that have no real chance of happening. How would we go about getting gun owners to enter into a general strike? Are we going to exclude those who are in critical services such as police and fire, medical care, and the like? Do pilots walk off the job in mid flight? How about the military? Prison guards?
If something bad happens during the strike, do we stand idly by and let it happen just so that we can show the non-gun owners just how powerful we are?
If we own guns to save precious life (and I just love the discussions about how evil murdering and child molesting bad guys are still humans and their life is precious) and a strike results in unintended losss of life of non-evil people, is it worthwhile? We like to speak of the importance of "even if it saves just one life..." so what if it costs lives?
A lot of these theories sound good and empowering to those who speak of such actions, but they rarely truly consider the consequences of such actions, just the goals.
If something bad happens during the strike, do we stand idly by and let it happen just so that we can show the non-gun owners just how powerful we are?
If we own guns to save precious life (and I just love the discussions about how evil murdering and child molesting bad guys are still humans and their life is precious) and a strike results in unintended losss of life of non-evil people, is it worthwhile? We like to speak of the importance of "even if it saves just one life..." so what if it costs lives?
A lot of these theories sound good and empowering to those who speak of such actions, but they rarely truly consider the consequences of such actions, just the goals.
Sometimes tough love is tough. When I was young I got spanked quite a bit. I deserved it, but it was hard for my parents to punish me as harsh as they did at times. When I got spanked bare butt (Again, I did deserve it.) my mom would give me a big hug afterwards and I could see the tears welling in her eyes. While this was hard for everyone, I am a better person because of it.
So yea, sometimes you have to let bad things happen to make things change for the better.
MeekAndMild
New member
Double Naught,
I'm sorry to disagree but having been raised in an industrial city, the child of a member of a huge labor union, I find such events to be not only possible but inevitable in the long course of history. Hopefully not in our lifetimes but still inevitable. (See Toynbee, Brinton, Whipple, et cetera) This thread started as a rhetorical question one day when I was pondering the potential economic disasters which could befall the US if our progression to Marxist activist government wasn't somehow turned. Since I'm a student of history and I recognize the inevitability of that same progression resulting in the violent suppression of a wide range of citizens including people like me, you, and most of the other non-revolutionaries in the country I wondered as to alternatives.
I agree with you that this was a rhetorical question. I don't think that a strike by gun owners would ever occur. But, considering the huge economic and social impact of the shooting sports, I really dread what might really happen instead if the antis ever gain too much political power.
I'm sorry to disagree but having been raised in an industrial city, the child of a member of a huge labor union, I find such events to be not only possible but inevitable in the long course of history. Hopefully not in our lifetimes but still inevitable. (See Toynbee, Brinton, Whipple, et cetera) This thread started as a rhetorical question one day when I was pondering the potential economic disasters which could befall the US if our progression to Marxist activist government wasn't somehow turned. Since I'm a student of history and I recognize the inevitability of that same progression resulting in the violent suppression of a wide range of citizens including people like me, you, and most of the other non-revolutionaries in the country I wondered as to alternatives.
I agree with you that this was a rhetorical question. I don't think that a strike by gun owners would ever occur. But, considering the huge economic and social impact of the shooting sports, I really dread what might really happen instead if the antis ever gain too much political power.