the recent post contrasting the 2nd and 14th amendments<\/a> opined, “the 2nd amendment is there to allow citizens to fight off an oppressive government, whether a foreign one or our own. But the most important reason for it ,is to preserve our God given right of self defense..Without the 2nd amendment…all the other ones can be taken away.”\u00a0 The underlying theme of his comment seems to be that governments only behave because of the constant palpable threat of insurrection by the people.<\/p>\nIn a completely different vein, another person opined regarding atheism that he could never himself be an atheist because he felt there would then be no reason not to just get up every morning and do whatever he felt like.\u00a0 He feared that without the threat of God’s wrath, he’d become a complete hedonist.<\/p>\n
In both these cases, the people are ordinary everyday folks.\u00a0 These are not borderline criminals or people you would otherwise fear.\u00a0 Yet they both seem to feel it is only the threat of punishment that keeps their world from falling into chaos.<\/p>\n
This is causing me to seriously question whether these two guys are an anomaly or whether they actually represent a far greater portion of the population than I might have expected.\u00a0 If it is only by force that much of this world is held together, then maybe that explains some things.\u00a0 Perhaps this is the underlying motivation behind those who would seek to impose rigid rules with draconian punishments on the minutiae of our lives.\u00a0 Whether those rules are religious, political, or just organizational, they are the rope that binds their own worlds from bursting apart, and they wish to assure that no one else operates outside those constraints.<\/p>\n
It’s understandable that if you feel that without being strapped to your seat you’d be running amok in the cabin that you would question the motives and actions of anyone not similarly bound.\u00a0 It’s not that I thought these people didn’t exist, but rather that they existed at the fringes of society, not in its mainstream.\u00a0 And I’m now coping with the dawning realization this may be a naive view.<\/p>\n
The ease with which looting and rioting break out in otherwise civilized cities is perhaps further indication we are not as evolved as I might have hoped.\u00a0 Maybe we are really just very large children, constrained only by the watchful gaze of a parent figure.\u00a0 Yearning to be free of that yoke and run wild through the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
If true, a sad reality indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve believed that most people don’t steal, they don’t kill, and they don’t rape and pillage because at their core<\/p>\n
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