Don't get mad at the dog if the cat did it.

posted by The Vidiot @ 10:47 AM Permalink

In my post below regarding the second amendment, in the comment section, there was a little back and forth about the gun control issue. The commenter pointed out some epidemiological studies that made guns look bad, but then he said he was really angry at all the violence in Mexico that was spilling out into his community because he lives in a border town, among other things. I said, well, then, your problem isn't with guns, it's with the drug war that's causing all the guns to be used.

We, as a society, tend to point the finger at the big, dumb dog who always looks guilty for something rather than at the sly nimble cat who's too cool to look guilty about anything.

For instance, recent ire directed at AIG paying it's executives bonuses, even though AIG received tons of bailout money. Anger at AIG is misdirected. You should be really angry at the idiots who voted for the bailout in the first place. Or, if you wanted to be even more correct, you should be angry at a system where money is so important, a business model like AIG could even exist.

Another example is terrorism. The reaction to the events of 9/11 had nothing to do with terrorism and its underlying causes. Had the US addressed the whys of middle eastern anger and frustration and dealt with those issues instead of clamping down on the American public and bombing the crap out of a few countries, we'd be in a much better situation right now. (This post is not about who really did 9/11 so don't even start with me.)

So, my advice is to not get angry at the first (and usually easiest) thing you see. Think a little harder about why that thing might be happening and what could be done to make it end. Stop treating the symptoms and start looking for the disease.

Labels: AIG, drug laws, gun laws, second amendment