An Armed Society
In spite of it being Black Friday weekend, Sunday’s shopping excursion proved to be easy going. Admittedly, it was with some trepidation that I waited until the afternoon. All went well, inside the store. The ugh time began when I jumped into my car. As I pulled out into the lane, and turned to straighten out, that is when an individual in a BMW SUV turned into the lane, and proceeded to head towards me.
No, he did not hit me. He pinned me in so that I could not complete my turn to straighten out my vehicle, to proceed up the lane. I looked him straight in the eye. What exactly he expected of me, was a mystery. I couldn’t pull back into my parking space, nor did I have much room to back out further. So I looked at him, and gestured for him to back up.
He was angry. I was disgusted. He was downright rude. He reminded me of that old joke about Beemer drivers that was quite popular in the 1990s. I apologize to those of you who drive BMWs and are not rude.
The joke goes like this:
What is the difference between a porcupine and a BMW?
With a Beemer, the pricks are in the inside.
He finally backed off. As I drove away, my second thought was this; if I was a strong guy from the old school, I would have pulled him out of his car, slapped him with my glove, and told him to pick it up. Then I would hand him my card, telling him to have his second call my second, and we would set up the duel. Because back in the day, rudeness was not tolerated.
In America, we tolerate much too much bad behaviour.
In our modern world, there is very little recourse for impertinence. In fact, I suggest too many have become quite crude when it comes to their conduct. Social media is my exhibit A for that. In spite of all the talk on empathy, and mindfulness, too often we experience people who are inward looking, and clueless. Like the driver in that Beemer, he could only manage a deer-in-the headlights, uncomprehending stare. He did not understand his own behavior. Nor could he bother to look and see what was in front of him.
He needs to read Grandma’s forthcoming book, Don’t Do Dumb Stuff.1 Indeed, once it is published, I will keep a few in the car, just to hand out to the clueless. Because this guy did something dumb. He made an enemy when he could have made a friend.
This short episode reminded me of another adage, which I first heard from a libertarian. That saying is this:
An armed society, is a polite society.
We cannot return to the days when a man tipped his hat to a woman, out of respect for her sex. The first reason we cannot return to such a nicety, is because men no longer wear hats as they used to. The exception is a small group of men that continue to dress with more formality than the rest of the society. The wearing of baseball caps does not count. Indeed, I have yet to see a guy wearing a baseball cap doff it in the presence of a female.
Throughout modern history, from the Renaissance forward, it has been considered politeness to doff a hat upon greeting women, and one’s betters. The difference being, men would return their hat to their head in some circumstances. Unless one was in the presence of their queen, one could replace their hat. Not to be polite in society was considered an affront that could be called out. Since most men, and many women, were armed, it was best to mind one’s P’s and Q’s rather than face either humiliation or having to get up at the crack of dawn to fight a duel. In the day of swords and knives, most duels were fought until first blood was drawn. The protocol then had the bleeding party apologize. After that, everyone packed up and went home, as the wrong had been righted.
Sometimes there would be a duel to death. That was reserved for great offenses, like adultery, insulting the monarch, or lies, that smeared one’s name, or the name of one’s nearest and dearest. If we took social media back into the Middle Ages, blood would be drawn daily. Mostly, people avoided dueling by minding their own business. Rivalries were left to the great families. The peasants, rich and poor, didn’t like the rivalries, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. This is so because peasants were about making money. If a peasant became rich enough, he could marry up. Either through himself marrying the earl’s daughter, or he would marry his daughter to the earl’s son. That sort of thing, Once that happened, they too could immerse themselves in the rivalries.
Peasants could arm themselves. There were no police around to keep their neighborhoods safe. That was the job of those who lived there. When traveling, all people of every class would hit the road together, to keep the brigands away. And of course, everyone was armed. Even the women would carry small daggers. People back then didn’t have the victim mentality that moderns have.
Up until the 20th century, it was considered okay to have a weapon for defense. What changed? The attitude towards the state and its government, that came with the theories of Marx and Engles, who considered everyone, except the rich, of course, a victim.
Victims wait for the state to take care of them, including, keep them safe. Because the state has told them they are victims, which means they are helpless. Sure, back in the day, the lord would keep his serfs safe, because his serfs lived on the baronial lands. He also kept the villagers safe, to some degree. The average villager, however, lived with others, so the others looked out for everyone in the household. If an invading army showed up, the villagers were let into the castle grounds, or into the church, which could have a monastery attached. Since they were armed, they helped to defend their territory.
The point being, no one lived alone. Except for hermits, living the single life just wasn’t done. Society was truly that: an organized community. Why even hunter-gathers had a society. They stuck together, had their various duties, and watched one another’s backs. Everyone was armed, to some extent. Victim-think wasn’t a thing. If attacked, by animal or human, one would defend their self, and others.
Our modern world has left us defenseless. If your home is invaded, which is the height of rudeness, you can call 911, and then wait for the police to arrive; average response time is 20 minutes in the big city. Or, you can shoot the bastard yourself. Make that bastards. Many home invasions today have two or more nasty fellows for you to deal with. Twenty minutes is long enough for these psychopaths to tie you up, ransack your house, and get away. They are smart, they wear masks and gloves. So even your cameras won’t capture their faces.
My call to action is for you to kiss off this modern age victim mentality. Get yourself trained to defend yourself, and others. Especially women! Especially now, with so many insolent males out there that think you owe them something. There are many excellent programs that will teach any of you how to avoid problems, and to stay alive. If you have children, you can defend them from the nefarious characters on the loose walking the streets of cities everywhere. And when your children are old enough, you send them to karate, krav maga, and later, to the firing range.
Does that make you uneasy to think about training your children to defend themselves? Then let’s work on that attitude. This is what my self-defense trainer said to me, many years back, at the beginning of his self defense course:
Have no mercy on anyone who would attack you.
When you think like that, it means you are no one’s victim. Like a warrior, even if you go down, you take the enemy with you.
Don’t Do Dumb Stuff will be published in the spring of 2024.