It’s rather naive to think fear of an armed citizenry is all that’s standing between democracy and tyranny. That is simply not the world we live in anymore.

Yet wall posts, like the one at the right, from the ironically named Facebook page Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, attempt to link gun control to the rise of a second Hitler. Never mind that the Europeans have had much stricter gun control laws during our lifetimes, and democracy hasn’t fallen there.

However, the gun control debate aside, the notion that in this modern world we live in, tyranny would come via militaristic control is a complete failure to understand our country, and moreover, the goals of those who would seek to control it.

Guns are messy solutions what with all the noise, and the bleeding, and the dying. Marketing is the key to power. You need to sell people on the idea they must give up their freedoms to ensure their safety, and even pay for the privilege. How much better is it when citizens willingly yield their power and their wealth as opposed to having to take it at gun point?

Consider that the people being whipped into a frenzy over the relationship between guns and tyranny are largely the same people who have been sold on the ideas:

• There’s no reason to worry about the government monitoring you if you have nothing to hide.
• Net Neutrality is anti-capitalist, and Internet censorship is essential to protect the children.
• Torture is effective, and detainment without due process is warranted when our safety is at stake.
• Additional funding for the largest military the world has ever known is essential.
• Hobbling or dismantling social safety net and insurance programs is the key to prosperity.
• Making the rich richer will ultimately benefit us all.
• Government subsidies of exiting corporations like Hollywood, big oil, and pharmaceuticals is essential to the economy.
• Government investment in new technology like green energy, genetic research, and other “disruptive” advancements is wasted money.
• Government regulation should never impede profit.
• Unionized workers are the reason manufacturing jobs went to China.

Desperate people are far more compliant and easy to control. If you are scared, broke, hungry, and/or sick, getting you to trade your long term interests for satisfaction of your short term needs becomes child’s play. Snake oil salesmen enrich themselves by playing on your fears, your needs, and your hopes. And you thank them for the privilege of buying into the illusion.

The snake oil salesman doesn’t care that you have a gun. In fact, he may be glad that you do. Because he knows he controls your mind. And won’t it be handy for him to have armed minions at his call when the rational people finally try to run him out of town?