Thursday, January 3, 2013

Ohh Wayne LaPierre

"Only Sith deal in absolutes"
Ignoring the fact that
A. the new trilogy is terrible compared to the original and
B. that quote is actually an absolute, thus making Obi-Wan a Sith by his own words, this quote has a certain, relevant point.
If you're wondering what in the heck Star Wars could have to do with Wayne LaPierre, let me give you a quote of his that will perhaps clear things up:
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
Ignoring the absolute absurdity of this statement holistically, I want to talk specifically about his use of the words "good" and "bad". He seems to have in his head this incredibly dualistic world. There's no gray in the phrases "good guy" and "bad guy", just white and black. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine him saying "You're either with me or against me" (for those of you that haven't kept up on their Star Wars, that's the line Anakin gives right before Obi-Wan says what I quoted above).
My problem with this attitude is that it's disgustingly simplistic. And, as with all overly simplistic models or views of the world, it ignores many realities of life that make life much more grey than black and white. And when you ignore reality, you ignore many problems that exist in reality.
The world is not absolute, and there is no such thing as an easy solution to this problem. On top of that, even if purely good and purely bad people existed, how would we figure out which is which?  Humanity and morality is more complicated than that, Mr. LaPierre, and the sooner you figure that out, the better chance your organization has of remaining relevant.

2 comments:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eAPIU8fCUNQ

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