Today in the newspaper, another young person is reported dead. It happened with an argument in the lobby of the Metreon, an entertainment complex in downtown San Francisco.
“Our emotions evolved when we didn’t have the technology to act so powerfully on them. In prehistoric times, when you had an instantaneous rage and for a second wanted to kill someone, you couldn’t do it very easily—but now you can.” So reminds us Paul Ekman as quoted by Daniel Goleman* in his book Emotional Intelligence.
Can you imagine if the person who popped the pistol at the Metreon had to instead wrestle his opponent to the ground? Bang on him with a rock?
Animals are smart enough to know to avoid confrontation. They know the price of failure is extremely high and before they start a fight they’d better be pretty sure they’ll win. Humans need such basic education.
Is it technology that’s allowed humans to run amok?
People argue that if we outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have guns. That ignores the problem of where the guns come from to begin with and that many outlaws’ guns come from a secondary market of guns that were once legitimate.
It also ignores the problem of the licensed gun used to kill loved ones, as in the case of the police officer, a trained professional, who shot his own daughter as she sneaked into the house after curfew.
This inability to think under duress is well described by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking with vignettes of (again!) police officers going after a suspects. If trained professionals can’t handle guns, how possibly could the general public?
In a confrontation, the weapon itself contributes to emotions run amok. The weapon itself adds a level of fear or excited arousal and a corresponding inability to think.
Maybe for some of us, guns are like heights. They say that people who are afraid of heights are really afraid they’ll hurl themselves into the abyss. I expect guns excite people in the same way.
Years ago I had a few dates with a guy who turned out to be a gun dealer. The relationship was over when he told me.
He showed me one and invited me to pick it up out of its box. It was a small thing, at most five inches long and very light weight. It was like a prise toy or some essential you would carry in your purse. I put it right back into its box!
I don’t have good impulse control. I might have shot him!
* Note 8 to Chapter 1 in Emotional Intelligence Why it can matter more than IQ.
Claire's Original Art Greeting Cards
There is nothing that says I care like a real snail-mail greeting card!
Click on a picture above for a plain-paper printable greeting card pdf.
Print on regular 8.5 by 11 printer paper. Fold twice so that the art is on the front and the title and copyright are on the back.
Write your greeting on the inside.
Mail in an A2 Invitation Envelope.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. All product links go to Amazon. Ads are Google generated and paid by click.
1 response so far ↓
1 Guest // Feb 24, 2010 at 12:28 pm
In light of states expanding gun rights and the recent tragedy in Littleton, you might expand on this blogpost about EI and gun use.
2/24/10
Leave a Comment