One of my friends posted a misquote of an actual quote from George Washington in favor of an individual's right to bear arms. The misquote is "A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." The actual quote is from George Washington's First State of the Union, and it goes like this: "A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies." If my reading comprehension serves, it sounds like he is calling on Congress to rev up the Military/Industrial Complex, not for Joe Sixpack to stuff his house with small arms.
I could go several directions in this blog:
I could go several directions in this blog:
- In 1790, they just got the freaking government going, would George Washington actually advocate the individual citizenry being well armed so that he could be overthrown by the same citizenry if necessary?
- If a person advocates a position based on a false quote or faked evidence, how credible is this person's position?
- My friend(the quote poster) is a policeman, does he really want everyone armed to the teeth?
- If George Washington referred to the U.S Government in 1790, would he have meant Us instead of Them? Who do you shoot if you don't like the government in a functioning democracy? If the government is Them now, is this still a good country to live in?
- Did the U.S. Civil War create an Us and Them in terms of government, a dichotomy that still exists depending on your own personal viewpoint? Does this explain the desire for authoritarian hierarchy in the mind of a politically conservative individual, but also the hatred of the authority figure/hierarchy who was not chosen by that same individual, even though that person's vote was counted and the election was fairly decided and legal?
- Are We the People still an Us? Was it ever? Will it ever be if it wasn't?
These are interesting questions, some are almost philosophical in nature. Since I'm not sure I can do service to these topics, I decided to go in a completely different direction by making up better quotes than the gun lobby misquote from above. Here it goes, the following are some made up quotations that actually make sense and are at least historically possible:
- Martha, where are the rolling papers? The yellow ones, dear, this crop of sticky icky is truly the chronic. - George Washington
- This Sorghum tastes like Alexander Hamilton's brown-eye. - John Adams
- An ounce of beaver fat to polish the outhouse throne will prevent a bleeding by the barber for an infected boil from a three inch splinter in the arse. - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac - The Director's Cut
- Pass the Sorghum, sirrah! - Abigail Adams
- Is that human being for sale? How much? That sounds kind of high, I don't know. Could you throw in the butter churn and the yarn de-woolinator as well? - Thomas Jefferson
- And if this Union should last, I would pray that Providence will deliver to the future generations the strength and will to make up things we said to promote logically fallacious arguments in service of a post-radical reactionary agenda. Amen. - Horner Vanderhoeven
Etc. Add your own in the comments, the best one(judged by me at my discretion when I get a moment) gets a six-pack of empty Diet Dr. Pepper cans.
Anal gibberish
ReplyDeletee
ReplyDeleteDid he not take up arms against his own govermnent? Washington's actions speak loud and clear as to exactly what he believed. It is not necessary to speculate on his words.
ReplyDeleteLike his response to the Whiskey Rebellion? This blog entry is about making up lies to support an agenda. Words and context are important if they are used to make logical arguments, even a weak one that includes an appeal to authority. If you use a "quote" that has GW saying that he directly advocates a modern version of gun ownership, it had better be factual if it has a chance of convincing people who make decisions based on facts.
Delete"In 1790, they just got the freaking government going, would George Washington actually advocate the individual citizenry being well armed so that he could be overthrown by the same citizenry if necessary?"
ReplyDeleteMuch of the militia brought their own arms to the fray in the Revolutionary War, if I recall correctly. Fact is, they WERE armed. Furthermore, Washington was not worried about being overthrown. If you recall your history, he willingly stepped down at the end of his term, in spite of widespread encouragement to stay on. He reluctantly accepted the Presidency in the first place, after the famed Jefferson quote, "We cannot, Sir, do without you."
His own quote upon his innauguration was:
"My movement to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of execution."
The position taken in your initial bullet point doesn't jibe with the history of his presidency. Maybe the quote was spurious, perhaps not. The quote which you draw the connection to appears to be from a completely different quote. The quote your friend posted was published in a Boston newspaper in 1790, and may or may not have been uttered by Washington.
Re: "1790 etc" is definitely just a spurious rhetorical question on my part and not a position per se. See my reply to J. Stone on October 9, 2012. I guess I buried in there the idea that it's very difficult(impossible) to know what George Washington thinks about gun ownership in the 21st century. Thanks for reading and posting a thoughtful comment.
DeleteIn context of the SOTU, 'a free people' clearly means 'a free country' and in no way implies individual gun ownership
Delete