2 Comments

As long as an individual can become a state governor or U.S. Senator/Congressman by outlawing vaccination, masks, and books and advocating for all citizens to carry concealed weapons, change is impossible.

Expand full comment

The gun epidemic points to a much larger issue which should be of interest to all of us. You write, "The problem is the irrationally facile access to firearms..." Let's start there, and then think bigger.

QUESTION: Can human beings successfully manage any amount of knowledge and power delivered at any rate?

The "more is better" relationship with knowledge at the heart of modern science seems to assume that we can manage any amount of knowledge and power delivered at any rate, given that the science community is seeking new knowledge as fast as budgets will allow.

Handguns are just the tip of the iceberg. There's also nuclear weapons, AI, genetic engineering, and who knows what else soon to come from the science community. If we can't handle handguns, what makes the science community think that we can handle all these other much greater forces??

I'm always looking for any place to discuss such questions with scientists, philosophers, or anybody else with a sincere interest. Happy to engage here, and grateful for links or suggestions of where such topics can be explored. As a place to start, here's one attempt.

https://www.tannytalk.com/p/our-relationship-with-knowledge

Expand full comment