| From: | acgetchell@*******.edu (Adam Getchell) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Shadowrun society and culture (was Re: Commercials & global "culture") |
| Date: | Fri, 24 May 1996 16:48:35 -0700 |
>a ton of problems, but I still live in, and still love because I see a lot
>of good in it. Many people who say America is violent for one reason or
>another (and yes, it is mostly do to lax gun laws) have never tried looking
As Paul pointed out, these "lax gun laws" have to do with the
constitutional legacy of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. I have not seen
another government constitution that recognizes the peoples' right to
violently overthrow their government if it tyrannically represses their
liberty and freedom.
To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson "[Concerning liberty] ...the blood
of patriots is its natural manure ..."
I would also disagree that most forms of gun control legislation
will do anything to discourage or make difficult the use of firearms by the
criminal class. They do tend to break laws, after all.
One could also point to statistics concerning the homicide rates
for cities and states that have "right to carry" and "shall issue"
concealed carry permits.
Or one could quote the late, great Robert A. Heinlein: "An armed
society is a polite society." And make correlations in the exquisite
manners of European nobles in previous centuries with that old standby for
resolving disputes, the Duel of Honor.
Let's tie this into Shadowrun, however. In the basically unfree
society that Shadowrun promulgates, people don't get to carry weapons. The
enforcement of these and other laws is made possible by formidable
technological advancements in the way of surveillance, the presence of
magic, and the economic slavery of most of the have-nots to the social
machinery of the haves. Naturally, for those that rebel against this
existance (go-gangers and other SINless), possession of a firearm becomes
the top means of enforcing ones' heirarchy within the relative power vacuum
of the downtrodden. Alliances with other like-minded individuals becomes
another necessity.
We have a very poetic arrangement of society: the bottom and top
layers of society are free to do what they want, subject only to the
dictates of their peculiarly small group and its internal rules. The vast
middle is unfree and wage-slaved. The bottom layers' freedom tends to be
constricted by the dictates of existance and the miniscule scrapings off
society, while the top is dictated only by competition with others in this
priveleged group for how much power can be grabbed. Both are parasitic with
respect to the middle.
One could also say this has been humanity's basic social model,
with just minor differences in class mobility and percentages. On the other
hand, these "minor differences" give rise to freedom and individuality.
Lowerclass: "Freedom is a warm gun."
Upperclass: "Freedom is an undercapitalized division merger."
Middleclass: "????"
Despite the money they make, Shadowrunners tend to be in the
lowerclasses. The tool may be a vehicle, gun, spells, or cyberdeck, but it
is still the same limited means.
Which is why they're doomed if they only use their tools.
=================================================================
Adam Getchell
acgetchell@*******.edu
http://www.engr.ucdavis.edu/~acgetche/
=================================================================
"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability in the opponent."
-- Sun Tzu
