Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - VA Tech shooting and politics (THIS IS THE THREAD FOR TALK OF "gun control", ETC)

roachboy · 04-18-2007, 01:09 PM

thing is that i dont see a police state being met with any particular resistance simply because people have guns---they are not magic objects, they do not bring with them political consciousness--what would matter is the organization of consent. if consent is organized on grounds that folk find to be compelling, they will not resist--it wont occur to them. so they would be docile people who happen to have guns. they would not percieve a police state as a police state: they would probably think in terms of necessary security measures carried out for some political objective that they would agree with. if the consent ran deep enough, people with guns would be no more or less inclined than people without guns to turn over suspected dissidents to the state.

same logic obtains for a revolutionary movement--what matters really is the political program--that is what would give a sense of direction and coherence to any such movement.

either way, people with guns are just people with guns. there IS NO POLITICAL MEANING TO OWNING A GUN. none--no more than political orientation can be derived from the car you drive or the pants you wear--insofar as all are commodities, all are functionally equivalent. having a gun does not make you free--it doesnt make you anything---a gun is a tool that no more tells you what to do with it than having a saw tells you how to cut pieces of wood to size for a building. to think otherwise would require that you also think that you can build a complex model spontaneously because you bought a tube of glue.

in the present political and legal environment, owning a gun is a type of accessorizing.
some people like chanel, other people like a glock.
it is a consumer choice.
nothing political about it, the imaginings of gun fetishists notwithstanding.

in a non-revolutionary situation, political conflict is primarily ideological and can be seen as a war of position. gramsci was right.

04-18-2007, 01:09 PM	#226 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	thing is that i dont see a police state being met with any particular resistance simply because people have guns---they are not magic objects, they do not bring with them political consciousness--what would matter is the organization of consent. if consent is organized on grounds that folk find to be compelling, they will not resist--it wont occur to them. so they would be docile people who happen to have guns. they would not percieve a police state as a police state: they would probably think in terms of necessary security measures carried out for some political objective that they would agree with. if the consent ran deep enough, people with guns would be no more or less inclined than people without guns to turn over suspected dissidents to the state. same logic obtains for a revolutionary movement--what matters really is the political program--that is what would give a sense of direction and coherence to any such movement. either way, people with guns are just people with guns. there IS NO POLITICAL MEANING TO OWNING A GUN. none--no more than political orientation can be derived from the car you drive or the pants you wear--insofar as all are commodities, all are functionally equivalent. having a gun does not make you free--it doesnt make you anything---a gun is a tool that no more tells you what to do with it than having a saw tells you how to cut pieces of wood to size for a building. to think otherwise would require that you also think that you can build a complex model spontaneously because you bought a tube of glue. in the present political and legal environment, owning a gun is a type of accessorizing. some people like chanel, other people like a glock. it is a consumer choice. nothing political about it, the imaginings of gun fetishists notwithstanding. in a non-revolutionary situation, political conflict is primarily ideological and can be seen as a war of position. gramsci was right. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 04-18-2007 at 01:13 PM..