The
Communitarian Abdication
by Mark Lamoree
Choosing an archetypal American used to be easy: John Wayne. Although most Americans never rode the open range or had to fight to the death to right a wrong, the ideals Wayne’s characters embodied were those aspired to by most of this nation’s citizens. Wayne’s characters were independent, asked nothing from anyone, and, although reluctant to fight, would do so when pressed. (We will leave aside for the time being Wayne’s unfortunate habit of slaughtering Native Americans.)
Today, the choice would be somewhat harder. A five-year-old shrieking to his mother to protect him from the bad people might be more appropriate. Our nation has become one that has taken the social contract entirely too far. Instead of viewing the government in its police function as a enforcer of laws while continuing to recognize that individuals may be called upon to defend themselves, many Americans seem to have arrived at the conclusion that self-defense is uncouth at best, and dangerous at worst.
Ultimately, the difference in these attitudes is the difference between individualist and communitarian thinking. An individualist ontology holds that each person is an end in himself, and therefore requires no permission from a society or state to defend himself. This is tempered by the social contract, which holds that unregulated vigilantism ultimately runs counter to the individual desire to live in peace. Lynch mobs, after all, make it hard to get on with one’s daily business. Still, the social contract recognizes that the police are not -- and should not be -- omnipresent. There are some occasions when an individual must protect himself before the police can get there. When was the last time a robber agreed to postpone his attack until the authorities could be called? The right of self-defense therefore stands unmolested.
Communitarians take a rather different view. Because the community -- be it in the form of a nation, city, or coffee klatch -- is superior to the individual, the right of self-defense exists only as long as the collective finds it convenient. The government of course, represents the collective. Because individuals are merely products of society, it is proper that they should be dependent on the community, and therefore subject to its power. Free people see self-defense as a right and an occasional necessity. Communitarians see it as a threat to the social order.
Self-defense is also offensive in principle to those who suffer from the nanny impulse. To someone who believes that the government knows best how to protect you, the idea of a person protecting himself without governmental approval is appalling. Self-defense impinges on the manifest destiny of the nanny state to make you safe whether you like it or not.
Individuals protecting themselves by necessity act in ways outside of the sphere of government or community control. A person who drives an invader from his home or defeats a would-be rapist has taken a very personal action. No sanction was asked; no help was taken from the state. Nothing could be more offensive to those who preach dependence on some superior authority.
The anti-gun movement, the drug war, and most of the other petty tyrannies we endure are results of this attitude. If people ought to rely on the police to defend them, there is no reason to allow them to keep guns in their home. We must declare war on drugs because parents cannot defend themselves or their children from drug dealers. If we rely on the government to protect us in every instance, there is no limit to the abrogations of freedom we should tolerate.
People are encouraged at every turn to be dependent on the state for protection from the boogeyman of the hour. And every hour brings a new boogeyman. Whether it is assault weapons, teen demons, coked up junkies, or patrons of adult bookstores, there is always something to be afraid of -- and something to make a law about. Giving up the obligation to deal with life’s crises in a means proper to a free and civil society becomes a habit
Thus we arrive at the current state of the nation. The media is always ready with a new crisis. Fear mongering, after all, builds ratings. The public is always ready to cry for a new law to deal with the crisis. If only we give up all responsibility to the state, utopia will finally be realized. And just think: you’ll never have to defend yourself -- except maybe against your own government.
