DO WE NEED MORE VIOLENCE?

There was a telling idea presented this morning on Steve Kornacki’s MSNBC show UP. It was a simple idea pointing out the difference between our two existing political parties. If we see an increase in gun violence, more Aurora, Co. and Newtown, Ct. shooting, there will be a cry to control gun violence. The new idea is that Republicans would be stimulated to want more guns to control the violence and Democrats would be stimulated to want fewer guns to control the violence.

This is more than just a curiosity or play on words; it relates to political philosophy in a fundamental way. An authoritarian personality believes in freedom and in strict law enforcement. Everyone has a right to have a gun but if they use that gun to cause harm, they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law; prisons and death penalties. In contrast, no one has a “right” to have a gun. Controlling who can own a gun is a way to prevent gun crime; no need for prisons and death penalties. In one system, the authority is in the hands of the individual, in contrast in the other, the authority is in the hands of the government.

As a person interested in evolutionary psychology, I believe we have our political behavior embedded in our genes; conservative individuality is more authoritarian and bestial, which seems most primitive. In contrast, having authority in the hands of government requires people to be more compromising and social that is to be more liberal; therefore, being more liberal seems more civilized, that is it seems more modern, something we are learning because of our need to live together in villages, towns and vast cities. Call it “survival of the fittest”, if you can stand the resulting uproar of protest based on the ego soothing belief that we are people and not animals. We have free will; what ever that is. If you believe that, you believe Darwin’s concept applies only to animals but not people; perhaps you believe we have culture, which in the minds of the protestors has nothing to do with something as crude as “survival of the fittest”.  If you believe that, you are part of the uproar, you are chasing your own tail. Part of our culture you claim we have is that we have a need for government to control bestial instincts.  If you can control your instincts, as hard as it is to do, suppress your desire to have a gun or give up your gun, or better yet vote to control guns. We need to control violence if we are to live together—and adding more guns is not the answer. We do not need more violence to control violence—that is double talk.

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