I swear it seems like we're breeding for stupidity. Or at least culturally training people to be stupid. Worse, Darwin will punish us for our total and complete stupidity. What am I talking about? Simple really. In the past 3 weeks I've met several people (all women for some reason but this level of total and complete stupidity is not sex-related) who say "I hate war." (Who doesn't. Not the people who have to fight them. You will never find someone who hates war more than someone who has fought one.) or "There's no reason for violence." or "Violence never settled anything."
God in Heaven. Do these people ever study history? Or even remember their history from High School? It's too much to ask that they remember anything from college even though they were all college graduates and some even had graduate degrees. Does anyone ever remember the Carthaginians? Did they do anything? Nope. Why? Because Rome DESTROYED them. Who says violence never settled anything? Or how about WWII? Violence never settled that one? Don't worry about whether it should have been fought (I say it should) but don't tell me it never settled anything.
No reason for violence? Not even self-defense? Really? Not in any
circumstances? Don't tempt me to tell real-life stories and then ask
if violence was unnecessary)
Or then I get the people who say we should all live like Ghandi and Dr. King. Now, I admire both men. And their accomplishments and bravery beggar *my* imagination. But both were opposed by people who had a conscience. There were some things the British Raj would not do or could not bring their troops to do or which the British public would not tolerate. So Ghandi won because the only way to defeat him would be to do things that the Raj would not do. Same with Dr. King. Bull Connor might have been ruthless but the American People would not permit it. To destroy Dr. King's movement would have meant publicly destroying American values. That we were unwilling to do. Try a thought experiment: Would Ghandi or King have survived (let alone won) against the Russians? If you say "yes", check out what the Russians have been doing in Chechnya for the past 10 years.
So get a grip people. Stop this. It's a damn big, mean world out there and, while *you* may not want to fight for your right to be snotty and disdainful and comfortable, be grateful to the others of us who are. By fighting for our own rights, we inadvertently protect yours. Economists call you "free riders". Well, you "free riders" have the right to be snotty and disdainful, but we have the right to hold you in contempt for acting that way.
