Guns, bombs, and the American way of life

Americans like guns because they owe their land to them. Guns were instrumental in the destruction of the native americans and the colonization of north america by european colonists. Guns allow for a straightforward exertion of the will to death – pull the trigger and something often dies. This might be called “intelligent design”.

The order of death provided by guns contrasts with the disorder of death provided by bombs. Bombs destroy over an area – whatever is in that area is harmed. There’s no pointing mechanism with a steely righteous Clint Eastwood gaze behind it.

Bombs are for poor people. They are cheap to construct, easy to use, and most importantly are often outside the formal economic system. In the religion of apocalyptic Mammon-fueled free market fundamentalism being poor is the greatest crime, a crime always punishable by misery, often by death.

Outlawing bombs, with wealthy (what Americans euphemistically call the “middle class”) Americans helpfully huddling in their homes following their use, is outlawing the final despairing expression of the poor (or those who align with them).

Americans believe that terrorism is fine, as long as it’s someone else receiving the terror. There isn’t substantial moral outrage about the use of the American military to dominate and often decimate whole countries – Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Yet a relatively minor single event like a mere 3,000 deaths in New York (compare to the 40,000 to 50,000 preventable deaths per day due to the global economic system or the 1,000,000+ deaths in Iraq due to the American invasion) causes great anger and calls for revenge.

Americans understand that they live in the heart of the global empire, and receive benefits accordingly. They are happy to receive such benefits as a 2nd television set in exchange for the gift of great misery bestowed on others.

This is called the “American way of life”. In recent years China and India have imported our ways, Bollywood one aspect of this, and Brazil is the most recent heathen converted to Mammon.