guns and nazis (was: White trash)

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Tue Nov 16 07:52:23 PST 1999



> From kpollitt at thenation.com Tue Nov 16 07:45:57 1999
>
> The gun thing always gets to me -- the idea that armed solitaries,
> or small armed bands of private citizens, can hold off the govt.
> This is the militia idea ...

This is *not* "the militia thing" -- the idea is that "the militia" is every citizen, and unless/until the government wages war on "every citizen" the notion of a militia should keep the government in check. It is *specifically not* an actual physical threat, which as you pointed out earlier, is difficult to support both ideologically and tactically.

The slow erosion of even the _possibility_ of maintaining this implicit check by the gradual disarmament of the citizenry is "the militia thing" and is what turns support of a simple idea into fanaticism at the fringes.

It's no wonder the "gun thing gets" to you; you don't understand it.

# "it's the militia thing, stupid"

/jordan



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list