[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'P')eople fought wars long before there was anything close to over-population.

[vox_mundi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'P')eople fought wars long before there was anything close to over-population.

[AgentR11]

---If fear is on the rise and becoming a dominant force in the background shaping our culture, where will this take us moving forward?
---How will this dominant sense of anxiety shape our world moving forward and how can this be mitigated?

Fear promotes violence, violence and helplessness make more fear. I think the feedback is already engaged, and given that resource constraints are starting to beat on our civilization; I see no reason to expect that feedback to ease off. Rather, it will eventually start to expand its grip and nation vs nation warfare will resume in Ernest. It doesn't take much experience with hunger or deprivation to completely warp a national consciousness into a realpolitik expression with nukes.

I do not believe it can be mitigated, but it is self correcting via population collapse, which needs no help from sane humans to do its horrible task.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vox_mundi', 'J')ust a thought...
It seems that a matriachal society might be way out of the self destructive characteristics of our global patriarchal leadership.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'M')itigation implies an enforced solution. Who enforces solutions? Government does.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'I')f fear is on the rise and becoming a dominant force in the background shaping our culture, where will this take us moving forward?

There are some clear consequences to being fearful. Just ask any mouse that cringes over every shadow passing overhead.

How will this dominant sense of anxiety shape our world moving forward and how can this be mitigated?

[Cog]

The motives are what they always were regarding CC. An insurance policy that you will be glad you took out if you ever have to use it. Which is almost exactly what the right to bear arms is. An insurance policy against government overreach.

But on that issue of gun violence. If it is statistically insignificant, why do progressives spend some time on the issue trying to restrict the right? Seems it would be a waste of their time and resources when they could concentrate on more pressing matters.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'T')he Itch seems to me toward a new tribalism to replace the old social structures we disdained and dismantled.

Ironic that the Great Mobility that broke down the distance barrier and made cultural melting pots possible is now morphing into to the Great Sort that enables opinion-based geographic relocation.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')his is mouse and porcupine strategy and your orientation is because you are reacting to the collective fear.

[Lore]

We've experienced it before with the Adams, #2 and #6. There are also many related people throughout our government's history in more minor roles.

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')his is mouse and porcupine strategy and your orientation is because you are reacting to the collective fear.

[Pops]

I saw a vid once where the guy with a knife made up a big distance— >6' and killed at least one cop and cut a few more before he finally went down. So yeah much more dangerous than it might seem.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'T')he motives are what they always were regarding CC. An insurance policy that you will be glad you took out if you ever have to use it. Which is almost exactly what the right to bear arms is. An insurance policy against government overreach.

But on that issue of gun violence. If it is statistically insignificant, why do progressives spend some time on the issue trying to restrict the right? Seems it would be a waste of their time and resources when they could concentrate on more pressing matters.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', ' ') The Joe6P of the world will surrender freedom for the illusion of security and we will descend into another long period of Monarchical/Inherited power.

[Pops]

I'm not sure...

My point with the previous post about how far removed from mortality we have become is partly that denying death and taking it out of normal daily life allows us to think we can make it out alive. Some large percentage of our wealth is spent on prolonging the last few months of pain before we succumb kicking and screaming.

Americans are fearful, we are afraid of everything, look at all the threads on this very site about any and everything from germs to diet to ... well, any and everything. Many pretend to revel in the "coming die-off" but I've decided that is just another schtick, another way to deal with the fear: "OMG! We're All Dead... oh well we deserve it."

"yeah... that's it!"

[ROCKMAN]

Ibon - I understand your sentiment. But: "On the other hand if France had such lax gun laws like North America how many more terrorist acts by radicalized muslims would we have seen? Those radicalized muslims had to be extremely careful in how they secured those semi automatic weapons even with the relative open borders in France. Those kinds of fire arms are simply not widely available there." Given the widespread carnage in Paris and the fire power that was brought to bare how can you say it's difficult for terrorists to secure weapons? I know it's a much worn out pitch but it's just as true in the US as the EU: guns laws are really only effective for those folks who don't break laws.

I don't want to give terrorist any new ideas but do you understand how easy it is to kill hundreds of folks in a single incident by unarmed terrorists? And that's the same possibility in the US as in any other spot on the planet.

As far as US shootings go I'll readily admit that there are 3 categories that concern me here: armed bad guys, armed good guys that aren't mentally suited to be armed and overly enthusiastic cops who fantasize about popping a "bad guy". I've known guys whose Napoleon complex led them to become cops. I've known “bad guys” I grew up with that had no concern when it came to hurting someone in order to get what they wanted. And long ago when I used to do weapons training I probably turned down about half of the potential students because I didn’t think they had the right mental mindset to be armed. My Yankee wife would fall into such a category if she asked me to train her…which she never would.

And yes: I’m never more than a couple of feet from a weapon 24/7. Not that I have any great expectation of having to shoot anyone but it does give me some peace of mind knowing it’s there.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I')'m not sure...

My point with the previous post about how far removed from mortality we have become is partly that denying death and taking it out of normal daily life allows us to think we can make it out alive. Some large percentage of our wealth is spent on prolonging the last few months of pain before we succumb kicking and screaming.

Americans are fearful, we are afraid of everything, look at all the threads on this very site about any and everything from germs to diet to ... well, any and everything. Many pretend to revel in the "coming die-off" but I've decided that is just another schtick, another way to deal with the fear: "OMG! We're All Dead... oh well we deserve it."

"yeah... that's it!"

[PrestonSturges]

Get used to The Fear, because it is the big theme of the GOP for next year, fear and the need for war, war, war. Much of the fear is fear of "The Other," those people, who change from year to year, but the script is basically the same.

In one of my favorite books about the rise of the Nazis, "They thought they were free," people describe how the Nazis kept the public rushing from one ginned up "crisis" to the next, so that they hardly had a chance to notice the loss of their rights.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I')'m a late boomer, my folks were "Silent Generation" kids of the depression/WWII. They saw tough times and their upbringing was rougher than we of the Spock generation (both Mr. & Dr.).

...

Along the way we lost touch with institutions that had previously been ubiquitous; church, civic and fraternal organisations, unions and (pardon the transgression) the single earner household. We are after all the Me generation.

I think lots of folks are wandering around aimlessly lost in suburbia. Alone in a crowd fighting to be first through the door on Black Friday. That is our motivation, our scorecard, our coup counting... the Big 50% Off Sale.

[Pops]

I don't think I'm skeered of a lot of the things talked about here. Ebola, terrorists, Turkey shooting , ISIS, Mexicans, Pooty Poot beating his chest...

Sure all that stuff could affect me but as long as the main things hold together I think people will muddle through. I'm thinking Law and Order. Not pacification and certainly not oppression and definitely not the promise of "safety at all cost"

Just not Fascism or some kind of Orwellian Socialism (which we are not liable to I don't think), that affects how we can react.

Even worse, Balkanization.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'M')itigation implies an enforced solution. Who enforces solutions? Government does.

Yes the thread is bogus because it presuppose we all live in fear. We don't. And it expresses a desire to eliminate fear.

You are the one implying that I am somehow evil for conceal carrying. I didn't bring it up before you did. You think taking that right away from me would make me less of a porcupine(in your words) How about leaving me and mine the hell alone? That will make me a lot less fearful.