{"id":33235,"date":"2013-04-18T07:09:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T13:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/18\/tragedy-liberty-and-making-a-point-poorly.html"},"modified":"2013-04-18T07:35:26","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T13:35:26","slug":"tragedy-liberty-and-making-a-point-poorly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/18\/tragedy-liberty-and-making-a-point-poorly.html","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy, Liberty, and Making a Point Poorly"},"content":{"rendered":"
I'll assume Bob Davis is actually pursuing a coherent and even meritorious thought here, and not just spewing from the mouth or looking to grab some headlines. \u00a0And that point is: To what extent does tragedy, and the desire to make it never happen again, trump the rights of others?<\/i><\/p>\n

That's a non-trivial question, for two reasons:<\/p>\n

1. Tragedy is a terrible driver for change. \u00a0We get all caught up in emotions. We have a desperate need to fix it. We have a fear of it recurring. We want other people to Do Something. We completely lose track of risk analysis and rational discourse. And if anything raises an objection, then there's a litany of "Think of the victims!"<\/p>\n

Of course, and unfortunately, tragedy is sometimes the only thing that penetrates past cynicism and inertia. \u00a0Or, alternately, the only leverage available to shame others into doing the right thing (or Doing Something).<\/p>\n

2. We have a great example of this in our recent history: 9\/11. \u00a0The tragedy of that day, and the fear of its recurrence, led to loud demands to Do Something, and gave the national security apparatus and the executive branch the leverage to push through "remedies"\u00a0that had been proposed and rejected for decades. It short-circuited our debate about privacy and security and civil liberties, and it trumped anything in its path. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, in this particular, I think Bob Davis is a horse's ass, both because, (a) to my mind, there is a massive difference between background checks and magazine limits on the one hand, and warrantless wiretapping, torture, indefinite detention, and all the other offenses against our liberties that we've seen post-9\/11, and (b) his approach and language was\u00a0asinine (unless he was simply looking for publicity, in which case it was evil).<\/p>\n

But, Bob Davis and the merits of gun control measures aside, the underlying point that tragedy shouldn't be what drives us to fix things, particularly in a blind frenzy, no matter the cost, is a valid one worth considering, regardless of the particular issue in question.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Les Jenkins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay classy, Bob Davis.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Conservative Radio Host To Newtown Families: ‘Go To Hell’<\/a>
\n Minnesota radio host Bob Davis is blaming the families who lost children in Newtown that they can “go to hell” for working to make him “lose my liberty.” \u201cI have something I want to say to the vict……\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I'll assume Bob Davis is actually pursuing a coherent and even meritorious thought here, and not just spewing from the mouth or looking to grab some headlines. \u00a0And that point is: To what extent does tragedy, and the desire to make it never happen again, trump the rights of others? That's a non-trivial question, for … Continue reading “Tragedy, Liberty, and Making a Point Poorly”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,298,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-guns","category-homeland-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":591,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/14\/tragedy_attract.html","url_meta":{"origin":33235,"position":0},"title":"Tragedy attracts spammers","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Sep-01 7:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"Tragedy attracts spammers Okay. There are worst scum than those who turn a tragedy like this to their own ideological gain. It's those who turn it (and the compassion that...","rel":"","context":"In "9-11"","block_context":{"text":"9-11","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/9-11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4136,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/01\/aw_hell.html","url_meta":{"origin":33235,"position":1},"title":"Aw, hell","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Feb-03 10:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"I was going to post about the 17th Anniversary of the Challenger explosion, the other day. I really was. I would have talked about the tragedy -- the tragedy as...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"Columbia","src":"\/blog\/images\/columbia.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11050,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/18\/this_tragedy_would_never.html","url_meta":{"origin":33235,"position":2},"title":"“… This Tragedy Would Never Have Happened”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Apr-07 3:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Though written\u00a0after the 9\/11 attacks, a quick review of the various partisans, pundits, and attention seekers after the Virginia Tech shootings shows that it's still, sadly, relevant. Why the Bombings...","rel":"","context":"In "9-11"","block_context":{"text":"9-11","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/9-11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130337,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/31\/the-tragedy-of-witzelsucht.html","url_meta":{"origin":33235,"position":3},"title":"The tragedy of Witzelsucht","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-Mar-16 6:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"Or given my notably lawful personality and love of Star Wars, maybe it should be the Trad Jedi of Witzelsucht.I'll be starting a Kickstarter for support very, very soon now. Give 'til it stops hurting.The Genuine Articles on Witzelsucht:- http:\/\/dictionary.webmd.com\/terms\/witzelsucht- https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Witzelsucht- http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/story\/20160308-the-curse-of-the-people-who-cant-stop-making-puns Originally shared by +The Bruce, Mile High: ***Dave's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28654,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/20\/unblogged-bits-for-2012-07-20.html","url_meta":{"origin":33235,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits for 2012-07-20","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Jul-12 10:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Google+Blog plugin is still borked. No response from plugin designer. Unsure what my options are at this point. \u00a0So, meanwhile, here are things I posted in Google Plus since yesterday, much of which is about the Colorado movie theater shooting: The shooting My\u00a0second\u00a0thought on the Colorado theater shooting - Which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10127,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/28\/the_pornography.html","url_meta":{"origin":33235,"position":5},"title":"“The Pornography of Suffering”","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 28-Aug-06 9:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Covering an airplane crash and its causes? News. Calling up relatives and friends of the victims, looking for quotes to make the tragedy all the more viscerally tragic? Exploitation....","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33246,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33235\/revisions\/33246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}