Berserk.

Editor,

Assault weapons figure prominently in the apocalyptic vision of individuals who fear that society as we know it is on the verge of collapsing. Individuals who fear this Mad Max future are desperate to stockpile enough high-velocity, high-capacity weaponry -- and food -- as possible so that they "and their families" will survive in the kill-or-be-killed dystopia they envision.

The irony is that societal collapse is facilitated by thinking like this. It is the epitome of alienation. No faith in one's fellow man. No faith in social institutions. Scratch civilized man, and a murderous raging beast is revealed.

I don't know how to reach the millions of madmen who perceive their world this way, who feel enraged at the thought that "the government", utterly foreign to them, is going to take their guns away: because in their minds their very lives depend on them.

But the way to prepare for apocalypse is to prevent it.

And the way to prevent it is to knit back together the social fabric that has been torn to shreds by capitalism gone berserk.

Re: "Guns, Abortion and Mistrust" (1/11/2013)