by Tenebris

Created on: November 30, 2008   Last Updated: September 08, 2010

Armed societies are governed by fear: of government on the one hand, and of other people on the other. This is the foundation upon which the police function is established.

At the outset it is assumed that all people are fundamentally self-serving, each man out for himself without regard for anyone else. Consequently, in the absence of a willingness to trust even insofar as to try to understand the other, the actions of any individuals or institutions not personally known or vouched for are necessarily seen as arbitrary. How could it be otherwise, when the assigned motivations designated by ideology replace any true desire even to try understand real motivations? That particular fear goes even deeper: since fear of consequences is perceived as the only thing holding society in check. If they could only get away with it (so goes the reasoning): why, a person or government might do ... anything.

The very concept of rights is cored in the belief that government and the instruments of government can never be trusted. (The corollary is that those who have been and continue to be the instruments of government can sometimes lose touch with why those rights have come into existence.)

In such a society, the police are simultaneously charged with the constant hassle of the (potentially) non law-abiding while leaving completely alone the (clearly) law-abiding. Every individual with something to lose sees the distinction clearly - *they* are just looking for opportunities to get away with things, but can't you tell that *I* am obviously a law-abiding citizen? - and expects the police to be able to do the same (psychically, no doubt). Any failure to do the second makes the police an instrument of government which has been corrupted by power, and thus to be stymied at every turn. Any failure to do the first makes them useless.

The end result is that the police, the very people who are normally entrusted by society to be a more-or-less neutral instrument of law enforcement, are simultaneously made powerless and seen as powerless.

When the police can no longer be trusted, the individual who has anything to lose must take the responsibility for their own protection upon themself. In such a society, the logic drives each such individual to go armed: for nothing less will suffice to stand between them and chaos.

... And yet in each person's mind, they themself have no part in having built that chaos on a foundation of mistrust born of fear.

Learn more about this author, Tenebris.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.