Power of the People comes from the Government. Or ... not.

Symbolism | The View From North Central Idaho:

 People, especially young men, want power, to feel empowered. Welfare laws what they are, there are few good fathers to be role models in a lot of inner city “families.” Boys and young men look for “strong” men to emulate, and they see gang-bangers above shop-keepers in the social hierarchy. The anti-gun laws have created the inner city gang problem, and here is the underlying mechanism. Gun laws are not only unconstitutional, they are anti-human, they are anti-black, anti-business, anti-woman, and anti-equality. As people are wont to say, “read the whole thing.” It’s not long.

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I tried to comment on this statement, but my input could not be accepted.  Which is probably "A Good Thing", because what I have to say is too extensive to be embodied in a comment form.

Here is what I was trying to say:

It's another way of saying that you are respected if your overlord (in this case, the government) cannot or will not stop you from grabbing power.   Shop-keepers are intrinsically law-abiding citizens, so if their government will not allow them to have "local power", these honest citizens have no recourse but to bow down to those who will TAKE power.
All of the negative consequences follow from the governmental decision to rule by fiat.  The Poor Man without power --- TAKES power!

Expansion:



Nobody likes to feel that they have been "put down by The Man", which is the bureaucracy of municipal government (or whatever authority is recognized 'locally'), but most of us recognize that a degree of centralized government is necessary for the continuation of "civilization".

Except .. some of us haven't been served well by either government or civilization.  Or perhaps most important, by the lowest common denominator of civilization: The Family.

Mother is unmarried and unable to both hold down a job and raise a family.  The Government provides just enough funding to survive, but there is no incentive to improve the situation.  The best that can happen is that Mom gets pregnant again, and the "Assistance" level from the Government increases.  That's progress.  It's not incentive.

There are no jobs, and the young males feel the natural obligation to be a bread-winner, because nobody else will.  And so he takes to the street. That's incentive.  It's not progress.

Because there are no jobs, and in the phase of his young life when he is expected to learn ways to become a contributing member of his community, his options are to starve. to feed off others which no more to offer than himself, or to learn the lessons from the only viable source available to him:  The Street.

He has no way to learn to hold down an honest job; those resources are not available to him.  His only option (if he is the older child) is to learn from those who practice violence and mayhem to 'get ahead'.

If the older child is not male, her options are fewer: prostitution, or finding a strong male who will protect her.  All the "waitress" level jobs are already filled, and there are not enough rich homes to employ her in a servile position.  If she chooses prostitution she becomes another Baby-Machine, bringing into her family more children which must be supported.

And the Government does nothing except to add her to The Dole, as long as she keeps making babies.   They will give her a small amount of money, but no real HELP.  That's neither progress nor incentive.  That's despair.

"Baby Machine" or "Criminal" or "Dependent"; those are the options.  Nobody is making any effort to raise these children above the basic level of survival.  Discipline is unlearned.  The schools are a joke. Those who have the exceptional will to rise above these poverty levels are ... rare; exceptionalism is not taught in PS239.

Survival, however, is the first and last lesson.  So they do what they must to carve a place for themselves in their community of survivalism.

And they kill each other.  Or they bring more children into this World Without Hope.

Or, usually , both.

All the GOVERNMENT can do is to make more ineffectual laws, which they ignore because they instinctively understand that the laws do not give them RIGHTS or HELP, but only restrict their options.

And when they vote, they vote DEMOCRAT .. because the Liberals are better liars than the Conservatives.

At least, the Liberals promise HOPE, and CHANGE.  (Any change would be an improvement!)  It doesn't really matter that everyone knows they are liars; they learned that lesson while they were in diapers.)

And they are afraid to vote, if they bother to vote, for Conservatives, because the only truth offered there is:

              You're on your own.

To be thrown into a world for which they have not learned better survival skills than to submit or to dominate ... there's neither Hope nor Change, nor encouragement nor support.

That's not even acknowledgement that they are worth saving.

That's just more despair.

I couldn't live like that.

And neither can they.