GUNS, DRUGS AND WAR

    It is absolutely impossible to eradicate all guns on the planet at
this time.
 
    Therefore SOMEONE will have guns.
 
    It is tempting to try to put ALL the guns in the hands of an elite
group of "all good and all powerful beings" who will protect the rest of
us from the bad guys. 
 
    However if you put out a job request for an "all good, all powerful
being" every criminal in the state will apply. 

    They say that Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.  The implication is
that no one can hold power for long without becoming a criminal.  This is
not true, any one of you could manage the reigns of power forever and not
become a criminal.

    The problem then is not whether any particular being or group of
beings will succumb to Corruption, Temptation and Seduction, but whether
their personel department can filter out the beings who apply for work in
your Power Center with pre-existing hidden criminal intent.

    It's one thing to be all good and all powerful, quite another to be
all wise and all seeing. 

    Can you tell the bad guys?  Can anyone?

    It follows absolutely therefore, that once lawmakers outlaw criminals,
criminals will become lawmakers.  If you give absolute power and authority
over the productive populace to any one group of people, in order for them
to protect the good from the bad, then the bad will naturally be attracted
to positions within the central power authority because it's the only
place they can safely hide. 

     Criminals know a good thing when they see it.

     Once criminals get elected or weasel their way into positions within
the central authority they start to weed out the good, and soon the
central authority is totally over run by criminals who now have total
control over the populace to protect the bad from the good. 
 
    Therefore, although it may appear to be an ideal scene that the only
the cops and army and government officials have guns, and no one else
does, this is in fact possibly the single most dangerous situation you
could have for long term democracy to prosper and flourish. 

    Shortsightedness can be measured directly by the tenacity with which a
person holds to this ideal scene. 
 
    The ONLY way to prevent criminals from taking over the power centers,
is to make the power center less attractive to them, by making it less
powerful.  One does this by distributing the power center across the whole
population.  Thus if guns and knives and bullwhips are to exist, then they
must be owned by everyone, and the police, the army and the government
must be answerable to the people, by force and escrowed encryption if
necessary. 
 
    Once the people can not fight back, the country is gone.
 
    As for drugs, 

    "Drugs are bad for children, drug wars are worse."
 
    As for marijuana, pot is better for children than cigarettes and
alcohol are for adults.
 
    Art Matrix - Lightlink supports the legalization of pot in all its
uses, and a total end to the war on drugs on all fronts. 

    How many children and have died and families ruined from drugs?
 
    How many from wars on drugs?
 
    Homer

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Homer Wilson Smith     News, Web, Telnet      Art Matrix - Lightlink
(607) 277-0959         SunOS 4.1.4 Sparc 20   Internet Access, Ithaca NY
homer@lightlink.com    info@lightlink.com     http://www.lightlink.com