Wednesday, August 7, 2019

The Argument


The difference between conservatives and liberals is this: liberals care about everybody, conservatives care about anybody.  Economically, liberals want to make everybody’s life equally prosperous.  Conservatives recognize that in capitalism there will always be winners and losers, and thus it is impossible to make everybody a winner, but it is possible to make anybody the winner.  According to conservatives, somebody is going to be a loser in the capitalist system, but it doesn’t have to be you.  Any person can work harder or smarter than their competition and become the billionaire.  This opportunity for ANYBODY rather than opportunity for EVERYBODY mentality is based on the premise that the most intelligent and/or diligent persons will succeed.

Self-Defense.  What does any of that economic theorizing have to do with self-defense?  Well, it’s defense of the SELF, the individual, ME!  This is the same concept, but applied to personal protection instead of personal wealth.  Liberals want cops and soldiers and firefighters to protect everybody, so that they don’t have to do it individually.  Conservatives recognize limited resources and they realize that government probably can protect anybody it wanted to, but not everybody.  They do a fairly good job protecting the President (since 1963), but they can’t protect everybody the same way.  Liberalism extends from the universal healthcare and equality of outcome economics into the realm of personal protection with the same idea: government should protect EVERYBODY. 

They’re right, of course.  When I was in the military, I felt deeply ashamed for what happened on September 11th, 2001; the national security apparatus of the United States failed to protect Every American as it was supposed to.  They’re right that the government should be able to protect everybody, but it can’t.  This means, mathematically, that some bodies are going to be left unprotected by the government some of the time—realistically most of the time.  Just as equality of outcomes is not possible for economics, it is also not possible for government protection.  This is a fact liberals do not want to admit.  They do not want to accept personal responsibility for their own safety, because they (not unreasonably) believe that the government SHOULD protect them.  They should not have to be responsible for their own protection, because protection is the basic function of government.  To them, it is an entitlement just like education or universal health care; it’s protection of the public from dangerous actors.

Despite what conservatives like me say about liberals, this position is not bleeding-heart or emotion-driven political rhetoric.  It is—in fact—very conservative from one perspective: what are we paying the cops and soldiers and firefighters for if they cannot protect us?  That’s a pretty logical libertarian argument, actually.  Classical libertarians would argue that the only legitimate purpose of the government was in fact protection.  So the belief is neither bleeding-heart emotionality, nor political unreasonableness.  The government’s fundamental job is indeed to protect its citizenry.

But, while logical, reasonable and rational, the belief that government should protect everybody equally, is nonetheless naïve, because it, like Marx, Engle and Bernie Sanders, are detached from reality.  Yes, the government should be able to protect EVERYBODY.  But, even if you believe it can (which is both legally and mathematically impossible), the fact is government doesn’t.  A wise psychologist once said: Don’t “should” all over yourself.  If the world worked the way it SHOULD, then no innocent people would ever be victimized by predators.  But every year about 1.2 million innocent Americans are the victims of violent crime perpetrated by predators the local, state and federal governments were unable to stop.  That is reality.

The difference between what the governments should do and what they actually do is about 16,000 murders, about 130,000 rapes, over 300,000 robberies, and over 800,000 aggravated assaults every year in America.  Between 1.1 and 1.3 million violent crimes occur in the United States every year, even though the government should protect us.  Now, that’s only about .38% of the population facing violent crime in any given year; so an argument could be made that the government is doing fairly well at protecting the other 99.6% of the Every Bodies.  Some other liberals make that argument.  But, again, as a conservative, I don’t look at everybody; I look at the ANYBODY.  I don’t even look at the 1.2 million victims.  I look at the one victim.  SELF­-Defense is about the one victim, who can be ANYONE protecting himself from becoming one of the 1.2 million.

"Why do you need a gun?"  Statistically, I probably don’t.  The probabilities are in my favor that I will never again have to pull the trigger on another human being: less than .4% of the population of the United States is a victim of violent crime every year.  So, the odds are with me, with you, with EVERYBODY that he or she will not be a victim.  Liberals look at the 325 million of everybody.  As a conservative, I look at the individuals; I look at the ANYbodies, whether that is in economics, education, health care policy OR personal protection.  Not everybody can be protected, which is okay, because not everybody is going to be a victim.  In fact, only a tiny percentage of everybody is going to be a victim of violent crime this year, so the odds are against any particular person being a victim.  This is the insanity of liberalism, Marxism and ends justifying the means slaughter of millions, by the way.  To hell with the individual being raped, murdered or assaulted; "statistically, the crime rate is really actually pretty low."  Some leftists don't care about the individuals that make up the society, they just care about the "society as a whole," aka the EVERYBODY.  The problem with that statistical thinking is that an individual SOMEBODY is going to be a victim.  In fact, 1.1-1.3 million SOMEBODIES are going to be victims of violent crime this year.  Each one is SOMEBODY else’s child, parent, sibling, spouse or loved-one.  For them, the violent crime rate is not .38 percent, it is 100 percent.

As a conservative, I am an individualist.  As an individualist, that is how I look at violent crime, from the perspective of the individual victim or potential victim.  The FBI says we have a violent crime rate of about 382.9 per 100,000 people.  But the 382.9 PEOPLE do not care about the rest of the 100,000.  To the victim of violent crime, the violent crime rate is 100% because violence is interpersonal, not statistical.  Liberals ask, “With a .38% violent crime rate, why do you need a gun?”  I carry a gun because that .38% represents 1.2 million INDIVIDUALS who are victimized by predators every year in this country, despite the best efforts of local, state and federal governments to protect each one of them.  I recognize Reality; the government is unable to protect everybody, and therefore ANYBODY can be the victim of violent crime—if they rely on the government to protect them.  I no longer expect the government to protect me.  I do it myself.  Even if statistically, and demographically, the odds of me having to defend myself from violent crime are incredibly remote, I still am prepared to protect myself because the government isn’t there, won’t be there and Constitutionally couldn’t prevent violent crime from happening even if they were there.

Thanks,
Soule
Easy6Training


PS: Besides which, I don’t have to explain why I need a gun.  Our second guaranteed freedom—immediately after the right to think, speak, write, pray, and express ourselves however the hell we want to—is the right to defend all the other freedoms if somebody tries to take them away.  Exercising this freedom requires no further justification than does attending a particular church, mosque or synagogue, protesting a politician, or writing this blog.  I do all of those however the hell I want to, because the Bill of Rights says I can, and that second freedom prevents anybody from stopping me;)

No comments:

Post a Comment