Gun Bans are the Instruments of Tyrants

If you don’t believe the title of this article then you should learn history. After all a careful search of history will bear this out as the following quote from the socialist dictator Adolf Hitler shows. This year will go down in history. For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the future.” —Adolf Hitler, 1935

I’m certain that more research into gun control laws on a world-wide basis would reveal that more tyrants than Hitler used this method to obtain total control of their nation. I know that the people of the Soviet Union were not permitted to have guns. Nor were the people of Mao's China. In England right now they are experiencing riots because gentlemen are no longer armed. And one very effective tool of the would be tyrant is to allow chaos to reign until the people demand that something, anything be done to restore order to the society.

I also note this for consideration here: In our prisons all weapons are supposed to be in the hands of the guards yet hardly a day goes by (I’d guess that in aggregate no day goes by) without someone (including an occasional guard) being stabbed. This of course does not include the fact that some prisoners will be beaten by others with fists or feet! Thus in the most controlled society that we have we see the presence of weapons and violence without weapons. Therefore we can draw the conclusion that it is not the weapons that are the cause of the violence but rather the minds of men.

If you are a woman you should be even more up in arms against any attempt to disarm you. After all the greatest indicator that you will not be raped is your ability to defend yourself. And ladies, a black-belt rarely trumps a weapon of any sort not even a knife.

Of course there are lots of laws regarding the size and type of knife you may carry as well all of which make committing a mugging easier. Or a home invasion less risky to the criminal. I join many who ask why it is that after a shooting spree by someone we want to blame the gun (which has no feet) for the mayhem caused by the deranged mind that chose to make his fellow man an object of prey.

“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it.”
—William S. Burroughs

Lesson 59 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Since jealousy and greed are related closely, jealousy must obviously be a source or root of evil.

I am not so much interested in defining evil as identifying the cause of evil, these I have boiled down to greed, envy and jealousy. Indeed I believe that envy and jealousy are actually aspects of greed. Behind any behavior that could possibly be considered evil is the root of greed and its expression as naked greed, or greed disguised as envy or jealousy.

Sometimes of course greed is difficult to identify, for example when many people (including BHO in my humble opinion) start to talk about giving to the poor they rarely intend that they should give to the poor but are somewhat more like Judas Iscariot who had his hand in the money bag of Jesus. I say that even if they may not be stealing money for their own enrichment, for when they use the power of the government to take money from one person to give to another in order to appear to be generous they at minimum steal the accolade that would go with such a gift if they had not stepped between the ‘donor’ and the ‘recipient.’

However since BHO is running the money through the government chances are that at more than one level there are people who are diverting some of it to their own enrichment. This is on top of the fact that government ‘charity’ rarely does anything other than to increase the dependency of its recipient. While the increasing control this gives stokes the appetite of the government for ever greater power (which is one objective of some strains of greed) over all aspects of life.

© 2012 Vic Jones

Good Intentions

Good Intentions

Good intentions put no food on the table

Nor do they put money in the bank

Good intentions do no work

And good intentions save no lives

More often than not

Though many won’t admit

Good intentions lead to bad ends!

© 2012 Vic Jones

Lesson 53 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Human nature is universal, people are individual.

Self interest is a matter of human nature. In every society no matter how it is organized people will generally seek their own interests over everyone else. This is one of the generalities of human nature.

People are individual (this is also a generality of human nature) in that everyone will express some form of individuality even in the most conformist culture. Also even though everyone can be expected to seek his own interest it is never wise to expect that any one person will seek his own interest even when it may seem that he has an obvious interest.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 52 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Today’s lesson is a quote from Ayn Rand the author of Atlas Shrugged. “One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.” —Ayn Rand, 1975

My first question on seeing this quote is: What is a Statist? A Statist is a person who invests the state (government) with the ability to answer all of life’s questions and needs. A person who believes this way is worshiping a false god of course but since the state has become their god you cannot do much to persuade them away from investing all of their effort into it.

In the modern era it is wise for us to remember that the statist will do his (her) best to destroy anyone who even begins to shake their faith.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 51 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Self interest is not evil. Taking away people's incentive to win is evil!

Self interest is often conflated to be greed which is then seen as evil. I find no difficulty in identifying greed as evil. What I do find difficult is to separate honest and reasonable self interest that is survival oriented for both the individual and society from greed which is not survival oriented.

Perhaps the best way to define greed is as a hunger that cannot be sated and that grows greater the more it is fed. In extreme cases this sort of hunger destroys not only the individual but the society of which he is a part.

Taking away a person’s incentive to win  is evil because this is an abrogation of his self interest which as I noted above is good not only for himself but for everyone around him.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 36 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

All men are of equal moral value. But all men do not have equal talents. They definitely do not have equal abilities either. Therefore to expect all men to have or acquire the same amount of goods is foolish.
I will also add that not all men will apply themselves to the development of their skills with as much vigor as other men and that also makes a difference in the amount of goods a man can or will acquire. Life is not fair. In other words no matter how much we want it to be so, different people behave differently. If you don’t believe this consider identical twins. Even between two people so nearly alike, there is a difference in temperament and interests.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 35 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Some people will try to tell you that making a profit is evil; this is not true. What is evil is trying to take a man’s labor without compensating him. Taking labor or goods without compensation is what people who say making a profit is evil are trying to do.
In some ways this lesson is a reiteration of lesson 34. But it is well to remember that those who would steal by making you ashamed of making a profit will use most any method of beating you down so that they don’t get their heads handed to them when they break the laws of God about theft.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Struggling

I’m still struggling with the concept that there is anything that is necessary and at the same time evil. My conclusion is yes there is and the best example I can come up with is still a government or government generically.
I’m sure you are asking how this can be possible. In order to understand that government is evil and yet necessary you have to accept the position that mankind is evil. That in general and generically we all tend toward doing things that are evil. Once you accept that and accept that government (which is made up of people) is evil as well but necessary to curtail the tendency of people to be evil then you can begin to accept that government is a necessary evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 30 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. -- Lord Acton.

I’ve been trying to come up with something to add to this and all I can think to say is that it means that the government is no more trust worthy than is Reynolds Tobacco, or Google, or Microsoft for that matter. Each of these organizations has worked to acquire money which translates into power. What is especially worry some though is when a large corporation like Walmart starts cooperating with the government…

© 2011 Vic Jones.

Lesson 29 from: The Hard Knocks School of Life

The good man knows that all men are capable of evil and guards himself against evil in his thinking. The evil man doesn’t believe in evil and therefore lays himself open to commit all sorts of evil.

Who have been the monsters of the last century? Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, et al; I’m sure most people would agree on these men. What is the common thread that connects them all?

Is it not that they were all convinced that they were morally superior to all other people. Or that they rejected current common morality and definitions of evil?

All I know is this if I hear that a person believes he can define morality or evil without an outside guide I fear their rise to power.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 27 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

In order to tell a believable lie the first thing you have to do is convince yourself that the lie is true.
Lying to ourselves is one of the worst habits that humanity has. It is this propensity that enables truly huge lies to be believed. The fact that we accept small lies (even demand them at times) leads us to be vulnerable to big lies.

This is the principle that Josef Goebbels recognized when he said that if you tell a lie often enough and loud enough (I’m paraphrasing) that people will eventually believe it.

The question I think we ought to ask today is this: What sorts of loud lies are we believing because we refuse to believe that someone would be so bold as to say such things if they weren’t true?

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 26 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If good people don’t fight for what is right and good, evil people win!

What more needs to be said about this issue?

I suppose a great deal since there are some people (I think they are evil…) who say that you cannot really know what is right or good. Therefore it behooves us to consider what our definition of right and good is. When you are certain you know what is good then do not let others change your mind. When you do something look at the result, if other people are actually helped or improved by it there is a good probability that you are doing good. Conversely if people are being harmed and not improving because of what you are doing then you are doing wrong and to my mind possibly doing evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 23 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If you want to help someone you need to be sure that what you do for, or to them doesn’t hurt them.
Is it possible to harm someone when you intend to help them? Absolutely! So then you ask: how is this possible? Suppose a parent wishing to protect their child keeps him in a padded cage and carries him everywhere the child wants to go; will the child not be crippled despite the parent’s intention to help the child? And what of the man who is given a fish by the government; is he not harmed as well? Yet the intention is that he not be hungry.

© 2010 Vic Jones

Lesson 22 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Money is neither good nor evil; it is simply a tool. The mind that employs a tool may be good or evil, but the tool itself has no moral value.
I originally wrote this statement to clarify the idea that greed is a human problem not money lest anyone not be able to understand the previous lesson that greed is at the heart of all evil. I do not believe at all that any tool or thing which has no self-will can be evil. That leaves the question of semi-sentient creatures like apes, cats, dogs and whales. For those I don’t know but I have my reservations about cats. I do believe that cats can be evil. Maybe cats are not as evil as people but still they display a great deal of pleasure in torture.

© 2010 Vic Jones

Colors

Colors


My skin,

Does it matter what color it is?

Why do you care so much?

About my skin,

Rather than what is within?

What is your answer?

Shall we another generation birth,

To hate one another,

And carry forth the ancient war?

Or will we really learn not to hate,

Just ’cause you’re black and I’m not?

© 2010 Vic Jones

Lesson 12 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Find someone who needs help and help them. Do this personally and you will improve yourself and the world!
If you feel bad about the way someone is treated or is living it is your responsibility to help them. If you try to browbeat someone else into doing what you think is helpful rather than doing it personally you are a tyrant.

© 2010 Vic Jones

Lesson 6 from The Hard knocks School of Life

People are more important than things, concentrate on having good relationships and you will have a happier life.
It seems to me that the greatest difficulties and conflicts in human relationships are created when a greater emphasis is placed on possessions rather than upon caring for one another.

© 2010 Vic Jones

Lesson 4 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

The reason negative thinking works more often than positive thinking is that we are more apt to act on our negative thoughts than on our positive thoughts.
In my experience I have seen much to indicate that most people are willing to say that will never work before something is tried. I know that doesn’t mean that there are not things and ideas that should not be tried, just that history is filled with people who did go against the tide so to speak so that we have all sorts of convenient luxuries like electric lights and automobiles!

© 2010 Vic Jones

Anger

Anger


Are you angry?

What is the problem?

Don’t look at the anger,

Nor even what is in front of you now,

Will you look deeply,

And find,

Why you are angry?

Search out your hurt,

Search out your fear,

Face them,

Heal,

And beg forgiveness,

From those you have harmed.

© 2010 Vic Jones