Unpacking the Unseen Link 💭💡

If you Google the data about the number of deaths in America due to a shootout in any particular year, the data will baffle you. Along the same time frame the debate about whether to ban the sale of guns should be implemented or more checks and balances should be there, the end result is always the same. Despite the no. Of accidents there is a deep seated frame of mind in the average American across the political spectrum that the state can only protect you so much, that is to say it has a limited capacity no matter how efficient it is and that is what is vaguely referred to as the gun culture.

Something similar but of a slightly different dimension was seen during the Riots in France, that despite the ongoing clashes and burning of public property the common man who has got nothing to do with either side simply refused to let his freedom be curtailed by those who didn’t agree with the state policies.

The point I’m trying to make is that in both the cases there is an understanding at a certain level that although the state exists to protect the life, liberty and property of the individual at a certain level but at a more realistic level there is a realization that state has limited capacity and ability and has to make a conscious choice to select the priority areas and the amount of intervention as there is never a universally accepted level for all times and for all places.

Now whether the gun culture will end in the near future, I doubt it. However one wonders what has all this got to do with India, sadly a particular section of India and Indians have a bad habit of a sort of hero worship and in that sense leave everything to the state without realizing the potential and importance of independent institutions.

In that sense the national identity that stems from the civilizational consciousness has been under constant attack from the enemies of open society that live in echo chambers and have been spread not through evolution, debate, curiosity or enlightenment but through the edge of the sword.

The way forward for both America and India is to learn from each other. American Gun activist can learn the meaning of Duty or Dharma from India and some Indians on the other hand can learn the reality that not everything can be left to the state.