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Walrus hypocrisy

March 2, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“I weep for you,” the Walrus said.

“I deeply sympathize.”

With sobs and tears he sorted out

Those of the largest size,

Holding his pocket -handkerchief

Before his streaming eyes.

– he Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass

and What Alice Found There, 1872.

The Walrus could have run for President of the United States, except that he was British. All things considered, it might not  have mattered. Come to think of it, that is pretty well who is the President of the United States and he too was sorting out his tears to find the largest ones, before which to hold his pocket-handkerchief.

Well, he wasn’t alone in this. There was the whole wide membership of the National Rifle Association (NRA), all participating in this fine, fool hypocrisy of pretending to give a damn about a bunch of kids and others being shot up in yet another mass shooting.

It is the same thing as saying about hundreds of civilians – especially all those children – that there is bound to be “some collateral damage” in any war situation. The persons saying that, like the members of the NRA and the current President, don’t  actually give a damn about kids dying violent, senseless deaths.

Television stations brandish the scenes of horror; newspapers print strong headlines but the people that could do something about it, the gun-toting, warmongering, scary people with the large pocket-handkerchiefs, have no intention of changing anything; no remorse, no plans for preventing all that infanticide and young peoples’ violent deaths.

It is just the risk of collateral damage that goes along with everyone’s right to possess arms, any arms, all the arms and lots of ammunition to go with them. Presumably, the kids just have to take their chances: life is full risks; we all have to die sometime; what matters is the unfettered rights of a person, any crazy, angry person to bear and do anything he likes with them.

Sorry, Emma Gonzales, and all the strongly offended and determined teens marching on their state capitols; you can stand and shout, brave as you are and, so completely within your right to demand action, serious action that would cripple the loonies bearing any arms they want, to do as much harm as they want – it will never happen.

Craziness and violence are fully in fashion. Not that we have come into that from a blissful era of peace. Indeed, no. Students of 20th Century history are overwhelmed with the dates and statistics of crazy and violent throughout that and this centuries.

Entertainment has a lot to answer for, in this writer’s opinion. From the cartoons we watched as tots to the ribald adult (particularly video ) games, every type of dark film – you can really go deep there. Even the simple westerns and spy shows young people watched in the early days of television pressed and praised killing anybody, everybody. 

Just imagine for a moment, the current state of affairs not only in the USA but, please, across the Middle East – Syria – for which there has had to be a unanimously agreed  motion amongst all the members of the United Nations Security Council to call for a ceasefire in Syria, for a month (only!) in order to deal with the massive collateral damage that is taking place there. I mean, including Russia’s agreeing to this.

Where was I? Oh, yes, the USA…

Donald wants teachers to carry guns – “It’s called concealed carry,” says he, as  if that makes it alright.

There was a radio interview, this past week, with a person in Afghanistan, explaining how, after a terrible mass shooting in a school there, years ago, the Afghan president insisted on teachers carrying guns until one of them accidentally shot and killed a 12-year-old. The teachers rebelled and refused to carry guns after that, declaring their jobs were to teach and the responsibility for keeping students safe was that of the police and the military.

To really demonstrate just how nuts it is to suggest 700,000 guns be distributed across the USA for teachers to “conceal carry,” imagine the kind of films: dark or humorously dark that Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino could make of it all.

So. Here’s the real question: what about the rest of us and the rest of our pals to the south? Granted, there are going to be many people who have guns and who are most unlikely to shoot and or even want to shoot other people, en masse or otherwise. Maybe always. We might never come to a stage of being so well civilized, where no one carries arms; when no one is inclined to carry arms, but that day is not coming soon.

Household weapons or not, how will the rest of us show that we truly give a damn about violence in our society?

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