The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

brunians at brunians.org · 17 Mar 2009, 10:36 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:36:00 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
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This is a good opportunity to start the discussion that I have been
wanting to have.

A prominent feature of Wolfe's politics, which appears time and time again
in his stories is his strong approval of the 2nd Amendment of the United
States constitution, which recognizes the inherent right of the people to
keep and bear arms, and his strong disapproval of the disarmement of the
citizenry.

Wolfe's readers are a diverse, and an international bunch, and I for one
am curious to hear the views of the various literate and intelligent
readers who frequent this list upon this subject, here in the early 21st
century, some 90 years into the international disarm-the-citizens campaign
that began after WWI.




.


> Allan Anderson wrote:
>> What do you mean about the militias? I'm not sure I get that.
>
> The entire "a government should be afraid of its people" idea, where the
> people should be armed and ready to take back control of their country
> when the government oversteps its bounds and becomes a burden more than
> a benefit.
> Our current militia movement takes justification in the @nd Amendment to
> the US constitution as statements of the founding fathers like Thomas
> Jefferson:
>      * I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good
> thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
>            o Letter to James Madison (January 30, 1787); referring to
> Shays' Rebellion Lipscomb & Bergh ed. 6:65
>
>      * God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a
> rebellion.... What country before ever existed a century and half
> without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if
> their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve
> the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them
> right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
> in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to
> time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
> Letter to William Stevens Smith (November 13, 1787), quoted in Padover's
> Jefferson On Democracy
>
> --
> Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
> < http://www.io.com/~jwilson >
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