One is reminded of what happened after the Russian revolution. People invaded the Okhrana (secret police) and got away with the documents, which later on Stalin could use to get control over people who had something to be ashamed of. I think the best one could do with secret police document is to burn them asap. Otherwise they will always be used as blackmail.
I don't believe Jyllandsposten, which is a scare-mongering anti-immigrant libel. I rather believe in official statistics according to which we, like almost all European countries, have about 10 murders a year per million people, like we always have had.
Most of these, also, occur in the big cities and are committed by drunk people, while the guns - or rifles - mostly belong to the countryside.
On the whole it seems that Americans have a neurotic attitude towards violence (sorry, Juan, for the national prejudice here).
In an earlier posting you mentioned the American attitude to firearms. Now, there are lots of firearms out in northern Scandinavia and Canada too. They are used exclusively for hunting and considered as economic tools like e.g. fishing rods. They are not symbols for sexuality or pride or whatever. Why can't Americans grow up?
What is your theory? Mine is that the neurosis has to do somehow with the extreme inequality paired with an inability to see structural class divides. People don't feel well but can't understand why. So they look at the world from the good-evil divide and invent imagined enemies they believe they can keep at distance with firearms.
One is reminded of what happened after the Russian revolution. People invaded the Okhrana (secret police) and got away with the documents, which later on Stalin could use to get control over people who had something to be ashamed of. I think the best one could do with secret police document is to burn them asap. Otherwise they will always be used as blackmail.
I don't believe Jyllandsposten, which is a scare-mongering anti-immigrant libel. I rather believe in official statistics according to which we, like almost all European countries, have about 10 murders a year per million people, like we always have had.
Most of these, also, occur in the big cities and are committed by drunk people, while the guns - or rifles - mostly belong to the countryside.
On the whole it seems that Americans have a neurotic attitude towards violence (sorry, Juan, for the national prejudice here).
In an earlier posting you mentioned the American attitude to firearms. Now, there are lots of firearms out in northern Scandinavia and Canada too. They are used exclusively for hunting and considered as economic tools like e.g. fishing rods. They are not symbols for sexuality or pride or whatever. Why can't Americans grow up?
What is your theory? Mine is that the neurosis has to do somehow with the extreme inequality paired with an inability to see structural class divides. People don't feel well but can't understand why. So they look at the world from the good-evil divide and invent imagined enemies they believe they can keep at distance with firearms.
Or do you have a better alternative?