Monday, September 29, 2008
Fear
A couple weeks ago, I had a really bad day at work. Someone at the director level was trying to cover his butt on a project that was way behind schedule, and he picked me as the scapegoat. I’ve never been treated like that in my professional career, and I’ve never been as angry about something that happened at work as I was that day.
Heck, I don’t remember the last time I was that angry about anything.
To top it off, that was the week that my mother-in-law was visiting. We don’t get along. She’s a multiculturalism and women’s studies professor, with all of the liberal hippie garbage that goes with it. Worse, after 50-some years, she still hasn’t figured out that kids need discipline and manners. She encourages the kids to become little hellions when she’s around.
I’m driving home from work, and I’m trying to figure out a way to blow off some steam. It’s not often that I shoot as therapy, but that day was one of those days. I walked through the door, told my wife that I was going to do some shooting, grabbed a few pistols, and went shooting with my son. Five clips later, I was still angry, but I could manage. I had put the situation in it’s place, it no longer dominated me.
Twenty minutes later, we sat down to dinner. Mother-in-law was sitting at the place next to me. She was acting a little strangely.
Then it hit me – she was terrified of me.
The in-laws don’t do guns. Father-in-law is a Canadian GFW who would be happy to see all guns confiscated. Mother-in-law is your typical liberal who sees that maybe someone might want a gun for hunting, or maybe farmers might find guns useful, but otherwise there really isn’t any need for them. We had spent many years hiding the fact that there were guns in the house when they were around, just to protect their delicate sensibilities. After ten years, I got tired of the charade and dropped it. But I had never actually done any shooting with either of them around until that day.
She was terrified - jerky movements, a bit of a shake, no eye contact, etc.
I learned something very important that day.
Liberals don’t understand violence. At all.
On a personal level, they don’t understand that anger can be directed and vented without causing harm, emotional or physical, to anyone or anything. They don’t understand that instruments of violence can be used in a way that doesn’t actually hurt anything. I think most importantly, they don’t understand that the inherent instinct to violence in men can be molded and shaped into a protective instinct rather than a predatory instinct.
With their misconception that all violence is inherently predatory, the only solution is that all violence must be banned. Thus – peace rallies, gun bans, and metrosexuals. They believe there is never (or perhaps, only extremely rarely) a justified use of violence, so all acts of violence are equally abhorrent, all people capable of violence need to be reprogrammed, and all instruments of violence need to be confiscated or rendered impotent. They fear violence, and those capable of it, so they seek to control people and things capable of violence via government.
There is a huge culture gap in this country, between liberal and conservative, and even more so I think between urban/suburban and rural. Walking into my house, this suburban liberal got a dose of rural culture that day. I don’t know what she took away from her experience that day, I didn’t ask. Something tells me I didn’t make any friends.
Even though they are flaming liberals, I find my in-laws to be more of an annoyance these days than a real problem. I feel a bit bad exploiting their fears, but uninvited liberals in one’s home using their influence to corrupt one’s children makes normally distasteful tactics more acceptable. One thing is for certain – these people will not be teaching their version of morality to my kids.
Not in my house, not on my watch.
Comments
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The thing I notice is they (the liberal GFW) seem to irrationally fly off the handle and are prone to anger fits.
They fear what they would do if armed,, and project onto others.raven | 9/29/2008 11:08 AM CDT -
Sort of self-fulfilling. They act irrationally with their impotent tantrums intentionally, to show what you would do only you’d have a gun. I’ve seen my sister do it.
Idahoser | 9/29/2008 11:28 AM CDT -
That fear of anger and violence and so forth certainly explains their lunatic behaviour when confronted with dissension. They have no idea how to express anger except through name calling and screeching insults. They should stop bottling every thing up and get used to all the emotions God gave us then perhaps we could have some real conversation.
gemma | 9/30/2008 06:12 AM CDT -
So, I guess inviting the M-I-L to go shooting with you and son would not have worked, eh?
Too bad; someone needs to “school” her about appropriate use of violence.
I understand that there are more cases where people will not change their minds, regardless…cas6039 | 9/30/2008 11:10 AM CDT -
Don’t bother trying to get her to shoot. Just make sure the kids are forever inoculated against her stupid thinking.
(Mr.) Kim du Toit | 10/1/2008 12:52 PM CDT -
The women in my family are tough...my mother survived the may blitz on liverpool and my m.i.l survived god knows what in Vietnam...they understand violence and when it is needed.
thud | 10/1/2008 02:07 PM CDT -
For years I was the sole gun owner, and the only male as well. Even the dog was a female. Finally Main Lady went to the pistol range with us, chose a silhouette and filled it full of holes.
“Guess who this is?” She asked playfully.
“Your boss?”
“Nope. This is my ex. The next one is going to be my boss.” She loaded up and sent the boss home in a box, complete with head shots.
I sympathize with you, but I encourage you to invite your in laws to the range with you. They’ll ostentatiously decline. Invite them again, and make sure you have a .22 with a LOT of ammo on the day they accept.
Mad Jack | 10/1/2008 02:52 PM CDT -
I seldom bother shooting if I’m ticked, but I ended up going yesterday out of duty. I put up a link on the Gun Counter that leads to my blog about it.
I’ve taken a few dozen liberals to the range over the years, my wife being one of the first, 21 years back.
Better than half of them managed to enjoy the experience and learn from it. The others… well, you can’t expect much from people whose political identity is based on conscious rejection of individual responsibility.
TmjUtah | 10/1/2008 03:36 PM CDT -
I believe that there is an additional element to the fear. They fear individualism and personal freedom. Their morality is socially(scocietally) based and rooted in communalism. “The greatest good for the greatest number” and “from each according to his ability to each according to his need” are the foundations of what is Good and Right. There is nothing more dangerous than possessing and using a gun because that enables one to assert one’s self interest against the “society’s good”, which is Ultimate Evil by their lights.
Papapete | 10/1/2008 03:40 PM CDT -
They fear violence, and those capable of it...
The sheep can’t tell the sheepdog from the wolf?
I have some in-laws like that. We don’t discuss anything important. I don’t accomplish anything, and it annoys the pig.
Weetabix | 10/1/2008 04:12 PM CDT -
I thank God I found my wife and her family--one of the big pluses in our relationship is that we are all shooters. That was part of what sold her folks on me and vice versa. While I sympathize with your situation, I also appreciate your sharing this window on the liberal GFW mind. I think you’re right--they are driven by base, childish impulses and emotion. They lack the maturity confidently to control themselves, so they want the government to control everything and they think it’s fine for kids to run amok. They need to be put in their places. If they want others to protect them and control their world, then I guess it’s up to us to do that, at least within our “spheres of influence.”
Fear and respect are different, but related. Perhaps your in-law, having accepted her fear, can now learn respect upon seeing that you and your son really do have the emotional maturity responsibly to handle the ultimate power that a firearm puts in our hands. If not, fear will have to do.
Ay Uaxe | 10/1/2008 05:19 PM CDT -
I am living at home while a go to college and it’s very hard with GFWs for parents and don’t even get me started on my hollywood sister and brother in law.
No understanding of rightious aggression.
BarbarianPhilosohper | 10/1/2008 05:59 PM CDT -
As weetabix said about sheepdog vs wolf, a military leader recently gave a speech around just such a topic...if anyone can remember it, it will put this experience in perfect perspective.
SQ | 10/1/2008 10:57 PM CDT -
I will not be shooting with these people. These are not people to convert, these are people to keep off your property and away from your kids by any means possible.
Next up:
CCW for Mrs Farmer, and having her be target shooting when they arrive.
American Farmer | 10/2/2008 11:54 AM CDT -
“so all acts of violence are equally abhorrent”
I commented on this the other day at Kim’s..... about a headline that read:
“One Killed in Burglary”
...or some such. The touchy-feelies don’t care who was killed. Homeowner or Burglar, for them, it is a tragedy that someone died by violence. Rational people (as opposed to folks who let emotions make their decisions for them) make value judgements: they see it as a good thing if the burglar gets killed while burgling. It is only a tragedy if the homeowner, who was minding his own business and did nothing to bring the violence upon himself, is killed.
jimbob86 | 10/2/2008 11:39 PM CDT -
You might have Mrs. Farmer shooting something reactive like tomatoes or melons.
Weetabix | 10/3/2008 11:35 AM CDT -
Or those hairdresser’s foam wig heads.
Weetabix | 10/3/2008 11:38 AM CDT -
I’m tired and may be misremembering… but I believe it was Jeff Cooper who commented about hoplophobes.
They are afraid and shamed by those who stand head and shoulders above them, by being ABLE.
ABLE to command all they see, as a good rifleman can hit anything he sees. That command of environment shames, embarrasses, and causes fear in the hoplophobes.
I may have the accreditation or quote wrong, but as I said, it’s late and I’m tired… but I think the point is valid.
Aaron Neal | 10/5/2008 03:40 AM CDT -
I’ve heard it said that anti-gunners know that THEY themselves couldn’t be trusted w weapons, and thus by extension automatically assume that others would be just as violent as them if left unrestricted.
roger urban | 10/6/2008 08:01 AM CDT -
Damn dude, I never get 21 responses!
I think that the liberal opposition to violence is based in the idea that all people are generally good, and so all violence must result from either inequality or a misunderstanding. This is why they attach so much importance to negotiations. They believe that any problem can be talked through, because wars are only the result of misunderstanding. They do not recognize that some wars result from tremendous greed and evil.
FPOConservative | 10/22/2008 11:36 PM CDT
