24 January 2013

Imagining a dystopian future


This was the cover of The New Yorker twenty years ago (September 1993).

Via Stuff Smart People Like.

11 comments:

  1. FUDmongering at it's finest. The real dystopias in history have been those in which the state disarmed the populace.

    By some estimates, democide (murdered by the state) accounted for 262,000,000 deaths in the last century. That is dystopia.

    The strawman cartoon above is merely a useful idiot's willful distortion.

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  2. Let me also add that my grandparents did bring guns to school; they were part of the rifle club, which had a range in the basement of the school.

    Brooklyn Technical High School also had a rifle range and rifle club.

    There were no mass killings in schools before the state turned them into government certified helpless victim zones.

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  3. In reference to the previous comment: I'm sorry but in what world is a group of armed children considered a good thing? I have no problem with responsible, licensed gun ownership. But what we have now is chaos. Its a false dichotomy to suppose the only two options are an armed populace or a totally unarmed one.

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  4. In the world of your grandparents, where firearms were real, common, and tangible tools rather than verboten fetishes, or symbols of wanton violence, as they have been sold by the progressive [read: Fabian] entertainment industry. Children used to be taught responsibility early, and firearm safety really isn't difficult. If you can teach your child to operate a PC, you can teach your child to operate a firearm.

    What we have now is not "chaos". What we have now is an overall reduction in violent crime in the US for the last 20 years, while at the same time actual firearms sales soared. We are living in the safest time in America since the mid to late 1960s; practically Leave-It-To-Beaver America.

    If you take gun violence in the US by zip code, the nature of the remaining violence is clear; fatherless young men in state-sponsored broken homes are warring with each other with guns; mostly revolvers and shotguns.

    The vast majority of gun violence is endemic only in pockets of urban centers; and by far the vast majority of Americans outside of these troubled neighborhoods will never hear shots fired in anger.

    Now returning to the non-gang related firearms incidents, especially the active shooter tragedies that grip our psyches, the cause should be clear.

    I've posted this before, but it is worth consideration. If you don't know what these people have in common, bust out some Google-Fu.

    Eric Harris age 17, Zoloft then Luvox)
    Jeff Weise, age 16, Prozac
    Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Paxil
    Chris Fetters, age 13, Prozac.
    Christopher Pittman, Age 12, Zoloft.
    Mathew Miller, Age 13, Zoloft
    Fifteen-year-old Jarred Viktor, Paxil.
    Kip Kinkel, age 15, Prozac and Ritalin
    Luke Woodham, age 16, Prozac
    [Name withheld from media] Pocatello, ID age 12, Zoloft
    Michael Carneal, age 14, Ritalin
    [Name withheld from media] Huntsville, Alabama, Ritalin
    Andrew Golden, age 11, Ritalin and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14, Ritalin
    TJ Solomon, age 15, Ritalin
    Rod Mathews, age 14, Ritalin
    James Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs)
    Elizabeth Bush, age 13, Paxil
    Jason Hoffman, Effexor and Celexa
    Jarred Viktor, age 15, Paxil
    Chris Shanahan, age 15, Paxil
    Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin)
    Neal Furrow (Prozac)
    Alex Kim, age 13, Lexapro
    Diane Routhier Welbutrin
    Billy Willkomm, Age 17, Prozac
    Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter, age 12, Paxil
    Gareth Christian, age 18, Paxil
    Julie Woodward, age 17, Zoloft
    Matthew Miller , 13, Zoloft
    Kurt Danysh, age 18 Prozac
    Hammad Memon, Age 15, Zoloft and "other drugs for the conditions."
    Matti Saari, Age 22, Unspecified SSRI and a benzodiazapine.
    Steven Kazmierczak Prozac, Xanax and Ambien.
    Pekka-Eric, 18 unspecified antidepressants
    Asa Coon, Age 14 Trazodone.
    Jon Romano, age 16, unspecified medication for depression
    Kevin Rider, age 14, Prozac

    We live in an increasingly fatherless society, where boys are drugged for acting boyish; where every behavioral "problem" is drowned in synthetic cocktails known for violent side effects, while natural remedies for anxiety (yes, I mean weed) are confiscated and burned to keep big pharma and the DEA funded.

    But I digress.

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    1. Also, don't forget that back in your Grandparents Day (assuming that you are a Boomer or earlier), the best military firearms included the BAR and M-1 Rifle, neither with very high rates of fire. I'm a veteran, a gun owner, and very interested in firearms, but what we have now is ridiculous. Many people are better armed then soldiers in the military in some ways (political or military considerations prevent arming soldiers better), and there's no need for it. Over in Newton, ALL of the kids were shot several times, when it usually only takes one bullet to kill someone, and I am talking small children. Reduce the available firepower, reduce the ammunition (both the amounts that can be purchased, and carried in a single magazine), and cut back on the availability (if not altogether eliminate) armor piercing ammunition, and increase the number and detail of the background checks.

      And one thing we should do as a nation, is pass a law that says that only citizens of a GIVEN STATE can purchase a weapon within that state, and firearms cannot be purchased over the internet and delivered "remotely" (that is, via USPS, UPS, or FedEx, or like that). If you want to purchase a given weapon over the internet, then you have to do it via a licensed gun dealer within your state. Currently, New York and other states can pass all the gun restrictions they want, but people within one of those states can just drive a couple of hundred miles (if not actually just walking a mile or so in some cases) and purchase guns completely unavailable, and (in theory at least) completely illegal within their home state. And backup this law with real teeth; if you posses, transport, or own a firearm so illegally identified, then you go to prison for an extended period of time, period.

      I am not a member of the NRA, nor will I ever. I AM in support of people owning guns, be it for hunting, protection, or just plain fun, but we have gone too far.

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    2. The vast majority of gun violence is endemic only in pockets of urban centers; and by far the vast majority of Americans outside of these troubled neighborhoods will never hear shots fired in anger.

      Not true. Per capita (which is what matters it is much worse in mid size cities, rural red states etc. Furthermore, almost every other Western first world country has less violence than this one.

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    3. ORLY?

      http://i1.wp.com/jeromecukier.net/projects/crime/murders.png?resize=800%2C513

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9bRDNgd6E4

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    4. DaBris, don't forget the M1 carbine with a standard 15 round mag and a .30 caliber cartridge has been around for over 60 years. Many other semi-auto magazine fed firearms have been around longer than that.

      As for firearm Internet sales, your ignorance is showing. You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT simply order up firearms online and have them delivered to your house. In state, out of state, I don't care, it CANNOT be done. You've bought into the media hype hook, line and sinker. If someone simply boxes up a gun and sticks it in the mail to be shipped to a private residence, then they are already breaking the law.

      I have purchased several guns online, and this is how it works: You purchase the gun at an online store or auction site, during the transaction process you specify a local Federal Firearms Licensee in your area for shipment. The seller contacts the FFL for the ATF FFL ID number. The seller verifies this number online through the ATF web site. Once the seller determines it is valid they ship the firearm to the local FFL. Once it is delivered to the FFL you go an fill our the proper paperwork (for a fee), and the gun is transferred to you. Anything you hear differently are flat out lies generated by the media trying demonize firearms and frighten you.

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  5. As I think about this more and more, I've come to realize that the blood of Newtown, Columbine, etc., etc. is on the hands of dues-paying NRA members. Those dues has gone to further the political agenda of the NRA, which seems to be "more guns, all the time, everywhere" with an absolute refusal to even discuss matters without screaming "Obama wil take all your guns" or raging on about their perception that the 2nd Amendment intended weapons that were unimagineable in the 18th century. One would think it in the best interest of the NRA to participate in a rational discussion about this problem, but that seems beyond them. That a dystopian NY'er cover could have predicted guns in the classroom in the hands of children, well, irony defined.

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    1. The blood of Newton is on the hands of the sick and twisted Adam Lanza. He planned the massacre, he pulled the trigger, he took the lives of those people. It disgusts me that try to deflect this to innocent law-abiding people that are part of an association trying to preserve second amendment rights.

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