When Marcellus spoke these words in Hamlet, perhaps he was being prescient. A few weeks ago, a seventeen year old Danish girl reportedly used pepper spray to defend herself against a man who was apparently bent on raping her. The man got away, but Danish police did capture the “criminal”: the teenage girl, herself, whose use of the pepper spray constituted a criminal act in that country! She is likely to be prosecuted for her offense to law and order!
How are people in Denmark to protect themselves from violent attacks? Perhaps this young girl could have carried a gun for her protection? Not in Denmark, which has some of the most stringent gun-control laws in the world. Again, she would have faced criminal prosecution had she used a gun to ward off her assailant.
The state of Denmark – like political systems elsewhere – looks with disfavor upon human beings having the power to protect themselves from physical attacks. This is the prerogative of the state; individuals who have the arrogance to act as though they have any business protecting themselves from harm are interfering with the role of the state in managing its resources (i.e., people). Independence, self-direction, personal liberty, self-ownership: these are the traits insisted upon by those that the established order defines as the “extremists” in this well-managed “best of all possible worlds.” All efforts at self-sufficiency – including self-defense – must be quashed.
So what is the modern state – including the Danish paradise – to do to protect its powers from young girls – as well as others – who continue to insist upon a right of self-protection? What if people enroll in martial arts or other self-defense classes to learn how to use their own bodies and minds for protection? Perhaps Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, can provide political systems with an answer. In addition to shutting down the businesses that provide such learning, the state may require those trained in such self-defense skills to wear handcuffs and connected ankle-bracelets whenever they go out in public. What street mugger or rapist would have cause to fear such a disarmed victim?
If she manages to get elected president, Hillary might – on her own volition – create a new cabinet post to be known as the “Handicapper General.” Unless Bernie is elected vice-president, he may be persuaded to accept this position, as it would provide him with a base from which he could formulate a seemingly endless string of restraints upon the self-directed acts of individuals. What “socialist” would not find such a role the fulfillment of a life’s dream?
1:27 pm on February 14, 2016
