what I about individuals having biases and myths and prejudices
that are wrong, holds true for a society…
we, as a society, believed that slavery was not only right, but
necessary… we held to that myth and bias and prejudice and
superstition for many a year… until we were forced to overcome it…
if a society holds to a myth or prejudice that is harmful or
just plain wrong, it will take actions based upon those myths or
prejudices that will then lead society to a wrong place… because
the starting place is wrong, the ending place will also be wrong…
it is the nature of a map, that any starting place that is wrong,
will lead one to a wrong place…
so if we start with a wrong place, we will end up in the wrong place…
if we accept the myth of the second admendment which is the right to bear arms…
we have thus have given the rights to the bearer of arms over the right of
people not to be shot… in other words, by we have given owner
of guns, rights we have denied those who are shot…
we say that the second admendment rights are greater then the rights of
those who have been shot…
this has been dismissed by this argument…
we accept the notion, that a person cannot, CANNOT, shout fire
in a crowded theater because the ensuing panic will cause many
injuries, even deaths… thus we acknowledge that the right to be safe
overrules one’s free speech protection… we cannot allow free speech
which is a guaranteed right in the constitution, to supersede our right
to be safe in a theater… we curtailed free speech, a guaranteed right,
to allow people to be safe in a theatre…we also can do the exact
same thing, give people the right to be safe by curtailing guns in America…
if we allow guns right precedence over our personal safety, then we can also
allow one to shout fire in a crowded theatre under the same idea…
which admendment are we going to priority to? we have given priority to the safety
of people over free speech in one case… shall we do the same and give priority to
people’s safety over the second admendment?
so shall we follow prejudice?
in another example, we claim that America is the greatest country on earth…
and we then follow this opinion with actions based upon this opinion…
we have invaded far away countries with adverse reactions here in the US…
We suffer in part because we have taken actions based on our wrong
bias, our wrong prejudice and we are damaging ourselves in the process…
society too can suffer from having a wrong bias, a wrong superstition,
a wrong prejudice and we can tell if they are wrong because of the results
of any action taken based on the wrong bias or wrong superstition…
we must engage in a national discussion of who we are…
we must make an attack upon our convictions to discover
who we really are… just like individuals must make the same effort…
but who has the courage for an attack upon their convictions?
and who has the courage for leading an attack upon our national
convictions?
Kropotkin