Two Myths Deep
The myth behind the myth of the gun.
[What got me started along this line was an opinion piece last year in the NYTimes ’s (July 4). “Our Gun Myths Have Held America Hostage for Too Long,” by Francisco Cantu. Great writing.]
Lockean liberalism as it evolved in the American wilds would have frightened John Locke. The lone man didn’t stand much of a chance on the frontier. [It was community support that kept him alive.] Nor does he today, defenseless against “big” money and even bigger egos of those at ease in their manipulations of economic and political power.
But with a gun, with a light saber, with a sword or spear, he sees himself as far more than a survivalist. The myth of gun-based superiority persuaded thousands of people to storm Congress. They had weapons, guns or flag staffs, banners and “invincible right.” The equalizers.
The only thing stronger “than a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.” What on the surface could be more ridiculous? Covid was stronger. Hurricanes are stronger. Death is stronger. A police state is stronger. For the religious or spiritual, a higher power is stronger. Monopoly ownership of production is stronger. Labor unions are stronger. The rule of law might even be stronger?
But we can’t accept even a modest separation from this belief. For winning wars, keeping the peace, defending our homes, and maintaining the fiction of our own indominable independence--all, all of these, are based upon our belief in a heroic gun-toting self. Excepting superheroes, who are “faster than a speeding bullet,” it is our weaponized self that goes to imagined battles, unafraid and victorious.
Behind the myth of the gun, though, is another myth: the myth of the individual. That is the myth we must first challenge if we are to free ourselves from repeated tragedy.
This myth is foundational to our social/cultural thinking. It sees the individual as making “his” way in a society of opportunity. Right choices, sobriety, hard work, persistence, and a better life follows. In a “land of opportunity,” after sacrifice, sweat and self-denial, the successful, independent citizen stands free and unafraid.
Reality, however, has much to teach. No matter how hard we all try to find a seat, in musical chairs someone will lose each time and all, but one, will lose in the end. There are not enough chairs.
Absent such “victories,’ given that in our mythic world a person’s sense of worth and value is affirmed only by their successes “in the game,” we feel weak, inadequate, unworthy.
Yet the myth requires that we feel strong, unyielding and prepared for a heroic role on the many stages of life.
Thus, if not the winners that the myth of rugged individualism foretells, how do we feel safe and powerful, since we stand alone, “naked and afraid?”
With a gun.