A Nation of Cowards
Sorry for the light blogging today. Allow me to leave you on this provocative note: We are (still) a nation of cowards.
Now how can this be? How can a person who values himself so highly calmly accept the indignity of a criminal assault? How can one who believes that the essence of his dignity lies in his self-determination passively accept the forcible deprivation of that self-determination? How can he, quietly, with great dignity and poise, simply hand over the goods?
The assumption, of course, is that there is no inconsistency. The advice not to resist a criminal assault and simply hand over the goods is founded on the notion that one’s life is of incalculable value, and that no amount of property is worth it. Put aside, for a moment, the outrageousness of the suggestion that a criminal who proffers lethal violence should be treated as if he has instituted a new social contract: “I will not hurt or kill you if you give me what I want.” For years, feminists have labored to educate people that rape is not about sex, but about domination, degradation, and control. Evidently, someone needs to inform the law enforcement establishment and the media that kidnapping, robbery, carjacking, and assault are not about property.
Crime is not only a complete disavowal of the social contract, but also a commandeering of the victim’s person and liberty. If the individual’s dignity lies in the fact that he is a moral agent engaging in actions of his own will, in free exchange with others, then crime always violates the victim’s dignity. It is, in fact, an act of enslavement. Your wallet, your purse, or your car may not be worth your life, but your dignity is; and if it is not worth fighting for, it can hardly be said to exist.
I say “(still)” because that piece was first published in the Public Interest in 1993, at the height of the debate over banning handguns. The tide is turning in that fight, finally, but the sentiment behind banning a perfectly constructed tool of self-defense has gone nowhere I’m afraid. How often have you heard someone say “It’s just a thing that you’re being mugged for; things aren’t worth your life, are they?” Or, even more absurdly, “Do you really want to kill someone over your computer/wallet/car?” I alluded to this yesterday, but the drive to make people feel guilty for defending themselves in the face of unlawful aggression from the criminal class is, on its face, absurd. I would feel no guilt whatsoever for doing bodily harm to an assailant who has come to me in order to deprive me of my property, and neither should you: He broke the social contract, not you. If he pays the ultimate price for it, well, them’s the breaks.