A reader remarks on libertarian gun control:
Yep, that libertarian — or whatever — argument about arming the populace will make us polite is complete nonsense. It’s illogical when examined in the slightest, because it is moronically simplistic thinking being applied to one of the most complex systems* in existence, human society.
* (To quote Nassim Taleb: “The main idea behind complex systems is that the ensemble behaves in way not predicted by the components. The interactions matter more than the nature of the units. Studying individual ants will never (one can safely say never for most such situations), never give us an idea on how the ant colony operates. For that, one needs to understand an ant colony as an ant colony, no less, no more, not a collection of ants. This is called an “emergent” property of the whole, by which parts and whole differ because what matters is the interactions between such parts.”)
In my view, the more we embrace irrational religious systems on a literal basis – rather than taking the general good they convey – the less society should be entrusted with guns. The libertarian response is grounded on the assumption of rationality, but we need to remember that humanity is capable of rationality, but is not rational in and of itself. It’s easy to see some obscure passage in a divine text that someone interprets as an order to massacre someone else – say, the Cathars.
Depression is not generally a rational response to reality, yet depression is a rampant mental illness. We need to learn from that simple lesson.
