by Greg Camp ; Opinion
AmmoLand News welcomes Greg Camp to our list of the best and brightest Second Amendment contributors.
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- David Brooks, columnist with right-wing leanings for The New York Times, wants to be able to communicate.
Unfortunately, he’s decided that the people he’s seeking to have an exchange of ideas with are fanatics.
Now he says that we all—presuming we’re not fanatics in his mind—should approach such people with civility and love,.
In doing so, “you’ll teach the world something about you by the way you listen. You may even learn something; a person doesn’t have to be right to teach you some of the ways you are wrong.”
Well, then. This fills his condescension quota for the month. Isn’t it pleasant to learn that he will listen to the people whom he determines to be fanatics, a smug smile on his face while he learns just how superior he is.
Or how superior he believes himself to be. I raise this consideration of his article because I know exactly what he means, having been on the receiving end of attitudes much like his. And yes, his support for gun control is a part of what he’s talking about here.
What, though, is a fanatic?
People who follow a sports team or a celebrity with what looks like religious zeal are called fans, a shortened form of the word in question, and the etymology of the same informs us that the original notion was of a person who is “mad, enthusiastic, inspired by a god.” This fits into the idea that Brooks is arguing here. A fanatic is much like the person who is possessed, taken over by some outside force.
I do take something of what he’s saying to heart. It’s hard not to feel superior when the facts are on your side or when an opponent is being irrational. Talking to people who insist on believing things that are demonstrably false is tedious. But even if I were to have risen to the establishment heights of David Brooks, I’d have to understand that I, too, can be wrong.
And that’s the value of talking to people who disagree with me. Not to feel superior, since that is often easier to do without anyone else’s assistance. Instead, the goal is to participate in today’s agora, the marketplace of ideas. Ideas need to be tested, and there is no more caustic trial than the public stage of social media.
But what Brooks doesn’t understand is that asserting an argument is risky if it’s an honest act. The fanatic might have the truth. The trouble with the position that Brooks has adopted is that he’s committing the fallacy of begging the question. He knows he’s right because he’s right.
It’s my experience that the gun-rights position can win on the evidence when people care about that standard. If Brooks and his fellow establishment types are willing to listen, I’m ready to make my case. Even if they won’t be swayed by the use of logic, there will often be others watching the discussion, and that’s really what this is about.
Advocates aren’t here to change their minds, but lots of Americans in the middle can be reached, and those of us who support private ownership and carry of firearms cannot write them off.
About Greg Camp
Greg Camp has taught English composition and literature since 1998 and is the author of six books, including a western, The Willing Spirit, and Each One, Teach One, with Ranjit Singh on gun politics in America. His books can be found on Amazon. He tweets @gregcampnc.