How Can We Best Address 'The Gun Problem' in the U.S.?

From an email exchange around gun control....

I have been trying to piece together the contributing vectors of a bigger picture for large scale consequences - somewhat unique to modernity - that you've touched upon. Causality is a tricky issue with so many moving parts, but here is where I am at this point...still working out all the details....

Here are the (relatively) new variables that I believe contribute to these often unmanageable or unanticipated outcomes:

1) Superagency. Individuals - mainly through knowledge diffusion and technology availability - can have far more disruptive power at their disposal than previous generations. And by disruptive I mean both creative and destructive power. This is what makes terrorism on the scales we've seen it possible, makes rapid introduction and adoption of disruptive innovations possible (Elon Musk comes to mind), and is equally responsible for self-amplifying economic instability (runaway computer trades, for example). Combined with increased population, this helps exacerbate the potential for rapid change and disruption on scales that could never have been anticipated.

2) Complexity & Interdependence. Although human systems have always tended toward complexity, that complexity is now being amplified and abstracted exponentially. You would think this would have a counterbalancing influence on superagency, but in fact I think it feeds into it due to equally amplified interdependency: the "breaks in the chain" you allude to now go both ways, as it is now equally quite difficult to predict outcomes of complex systems or to sustain existing trajectories. It is fairly simple to disrupt complex systems (be it a power grid or a global economy) because their components are so intimately interconnected; it is equally simple (compared to the past) to create cascading social change (Arab Spring via social media) and explosive economic productivity (Chinese free enterprise zones) on very large scales in terms of both local and global population impacts.

3) Delayed Understanding and/or Willful Ignorance. There is a significant delay - both culturally and individually - in both comprehending and adapting to variables #1 and #2. This results in very human but ultimately misinformed attributions of causality for both constructive and destructive trends and events. In essence, we want to understand what is going on around us, but we don't, so we make stuff up or cling to oversimplifications. We then (increasingly, I think) deploy confirmation bias to align all emergent events with an existing (but woefully incomplete) causality matrix. Over time, when confronted with ever more complexity, interdependence and superagency, this incomplete attribution (and consequently inadequate strategic and tactical reactions) gets further and further out of sync with what is actually happening, even as our reactions becomes more entrenched and reflexive.

4) Change Pressure. This is mainly a characteristic of capitalistic efficiencies, in that innovation has tremendous commercialistic force behind it, along with massive resources to enable its reification. The speed with which a new drug, gadget, entertainment trend, etc. can be "brought to market" and replicated is...well...astounding. And, built into an increasingly global consumerism is an inherent "newer is better" mindset, so that the production/consumption cycle is frenetically amplified.

Now you might say that variable #3 isn't new...this is a normal human response that has led to things like scapegoating, fear and prejudice throughout human history. You might also say that variable #4 isn't really new either - the lemming effect likely predates capitalism. But I actually think it's quite different now, mainly because of variables #1 and #2. In other words, those with delayed understanding and/or willful ignorance can still have an extraordinary impact on the course of human events because they ALSO have superagency within complex and interdependent environments; and, likewise, change pressure is both facilitated by superagency and culturally cemented with interdependent complexity. In a nutshell, we could say that, as a species, we just haven't caught up with our own power yet; we haven't developed sufficiently (individually or culturally) to grok the entirety of the world we have built for ourselves or navigate skillfully. And, until we do, both horrific and wonderful things will happen that outpace our collective ability to manage or anticipate.

With this said, I think the only way we can remedy this situation is to attenuate ALL of the four variables in play. That is, diffuse superagency, simplify complexity and relax interdependence, increase understanding and entice curiosity, and reduce change pressure. I have a few ideas about how to accomplish these things that involve encouraging moral development and a more multidimensional understanding of the world...however, that is for the longer strategy. In the short run, I really believe that, without addressing all four variables concurrently in pretty aggressive ways, it's going to get a lot worse for all of us before it gets better.

Briefly, regarding gun control, I think some ways this approach could play out in the short run might be:

1) Diffuse Superagency: Reverse the ubiquity of powerful weapons - and the ability to fabricate them - amid the civilian population. Perhaps this could be done via a voluntary buyback program as long as item #3 below is fully implemented at the same time? And part of this would also need to rely on #4, so that companies' incentives to excite more demand and lobby against regulation is reined in a bit.

2) Simplify Complexity & Relax Interdependence: This is a longer term goal, but in the short run we could encourage more subsidiarity regarding all weapons laws, with strict enforcement of containment between communities. For example, allowing a State (or city) to pass their own local laws regarding firearms, to be respected by all visitors, with federal laws focusing on interstate and international commerce. I would of course also advocate the use of the pilot principle to test such a framework.

3) Increase Understanding & Entice Curiosity: Aggressively develop non-lethal alternatives to firearms that can fulfill 2nd Amendment considerations - and then educate people about their advantages. At the same time, collect more comprehensive firearms statistics (in explicit contradiction to the NRA's lobbying efforts...) to better understand causal relationships between crime and all weapons (both lethal and non-lethal).

4) Reduce Change Pressure: Adhere to the precautionary principle (from a regulatory and policy perspective) regarding the lethality and availability of all new weapons in the marketplace. In addition, hold companies accountable (monetarily and criminally) for exacerbating superagency by marketing high-lethality weapons to civilians.

My 2 cents.

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

This link is not meant to be clicked. It contains the trackback URI for this entry. You can use this URI to send ping- & trackbacks from your own blog to this entry. To copy the link, right click and select "Copy Shortcut" in Internet Explorer or "Copy Link Location" in Mozilla.

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as Linear | Threaded

No comments

The author does not allow comments to this entry