Bad Dog

In the wake of the most recent weekly mass shooting, there has been a lot of heated conversations about gun ownership.  Having a talent for seeing all sides of any issue, I am usually skilled at keeping my emotions out of any argument.  I find that once emotions take control of the dialogue, rationality and intelligent discourse often flee the room.  Name calling usually commences shortly thereafter, although the name-calling of today is a baffling to me...take an ordinarily neutral and highly descriptive word, then spit it out of your mouth through curled up lips, and it magically becomes an insult of the highest caliber.  Liberal.  Feminist.  Intellectual.  Personally, I just cannot muster the inanity to apply vitriol to a word such as conservative, family-oriented, or Christian.  They are not bad words and I find the practice to be sub-standard and lazy.  When I am forced to resort to name calling to make a point, I generally prefer more colorful words like fucktard or asshat or Dickfart (I made that one up today and it is my new favorite).

I don't believe in an inherent sense of right and wrong.  I believe moral standards are dictated by what is best for society as a group.  Therefore "right" is what is best for the collective.  To my mind, keeping your emotions in check during an argument is a superior position.  Losing one's temper and one's perspective is a less advanced method of communication and therefore inferior.

Similarly, I believe that peaceful resolution of differences is a superior and more socially advanced position than violence.  Violence, in any form and regardless of the personal justification, is simply a less advanced method for human interaction.  Violence is primitive, unrefined, and inferior to respectful negotiation, which requires advanced processing skills.  Violence lives in the portion of the brain that is most closely related to animals and is reflexive - like coughing or sneezing.  Language and cognition reside in the portion of the brain that is uniquely human and which differentiates us from the beasts.  Talking is more advanced than fighting.

There was a scene in the movie American Sniper that hit me hard, one I have replayed and turned over and over in my mind trying to work it out.  It offends me deeply, yet I have had difficulty pinpointing the fault in the assumptions.  One point of contention is the assumption that sheep prefer to believe that evil doesn't exist in the world.  I know it does.  I know there are people who would hurt me - badly.  But to surrender my convictions against violence, to take up weapons in the guise of "pro-active defense" is a form of defeat.  I cannot choose to be an inferior human being as a matter of convenience.  Striving towards a higher ideal is the only worthwhile thing about being human and that does NOT make me a sheep (were his lips curled when he said it??).  I guess what offends me about this is the notion that surrendering to base instincts is a morally superior position.  I simply disagree with that premise.

However, I do like a good metaphor - so let's run with that for a second. One big problem with the human ego is that it is very capable of self-delusion, and America currently sees itself as an entire nation of sheepdogs and unfortunately, many of those sheepdogs are killing their OWN flock.  And the real sheepdogs are so busy defending the impostors, that they aren't looking after the flock properly.  They have come to believe that the perceived rights of the false sheepdogs are more important than the lives of flock they are protecting.  

Bad Dog.