The New World Order

I am currently reading a book by noted author Henry A. Giroux entitled America at War with Itself. It is a wonderful read. In the book he suggests that the United States is particularly enamored with violence as one of the fundamental ways to engage reality. He does a great job of showing how our worshiping of violence in general and guns in particular are so much a part of our cultural milieu. As I was reading this part of the book I was sitting outside after purchasing some coffee. I was sitting on a bench just outside of where I purchased my coffee when the owner of the shop reminded me that I could no longer just be ‘outside’ given our current pandemic alert. I did leave but couldn’t help but notice to what lengths we have pulled together and followed the new rules in order to save lives, and express concern for the common good. Many of us have been ‘forced’ to restrict our freedoms because we are deeply aware of how our actions, behaviors, conduct etc. impacts our neighbors. We understand that life is precious and yes, at times, we have to sacrifice certain degrees of freedom and desires for something larger than ourselves. I couldn’t help but draw the comparison to how little we do this in relation to our ‘freedom’ in our ‘Right to Bear Arms’. When you compare the degree of the death caused by this pandemic to the numbers lost every year to gun violence. Yet we are absolutely unwilling to change our conduct, actions, behaviors etc. about guns. My point is that we are aware, under certain conditions, we find it acceptable to understand our freedom as being not absolute or abstractly asserted but always in relation to something larger than our individual proclivities, desires, and choices. Because of our awareness of the potential for the ‘danger’ posed by the Covid-19 virus we now have to adjust our individual desires. I still really, really, really want to go to a coffee shop and read! I know that, for now, this is not the right, moral or legal thing to do! The circumstances have changed! It would be absolutely asinine for me to not take into account the changing reality in which I live. Yet the minute we bring up gun control we immediately speak of it being a threat to the Second Amendment! It’s as though we are completely unaware of how the entire social reality under which that part of a document was constructed no longer exists. Are there some similarities to that time and now? Of course there are! For the time being I was still able to buy coffee at a coffee shop. We as human beings are able to see that some elements of social reality can continue with a reasonable level of assurance that things do not need to change. I am not, for the moment jeopardizing my neighbors by ordering coffee at a coffee house. However, I am also aware that things have to change because we are under a new situation. As I was writing this entry I was wondering whether I should cite statistics but I chose not to do this for 2 reasons. (1) This format (blogging) is not an exercise in academic writing so it does not need to have the same level of evident-based rigor (2) I feel like you can obviously look all of the numbers up. I feel like we have become numb to the ‘numbers game’ in relation to the death tolls by guns. After we re-calibrate what ever ‘normal’ will be after this horrible crisis I want us to reconsider our fetishizing of the concept of ‘freedom’ in general and especially in the area of gun control. Finally, I want to propose that we begin to understand how this entire Covid-19 experience has shown us (in some sense through a tragic level of pain) how in fact we really are connected and ultimately, using a concept from my theological tradition, are found in a Covenant reality. To use a phrase made famous by Dr. Martin Luther King all ‘tied in a single garment of destiny’. On a good day, I believe we will come out of this experience, undoubtedly scarred, but if we can retain some compassion and grow in wisdom as we address the other crises in our midst we might still be able to use this horrific crisis to move humanity a bit closer toward the Beloved Community.