BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY OCT. 4, 2017) — Our series on the Berkshire Museum‘s art sale put several planned topics on hold. Today we thought THE PLANET would handle them, albeit briefly. Then, on Sunday evening in Las Vegas, Stephen Paddock broke a window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and began squeezing. As of press time, the latest official figures stood at 59 dead and 527 injured. They are sure to rise by the time you read this.

We shall leave to others the predictable ensuing debate over firearms. Do we need more gun laws? If you argue yes, then say how that will affect a situation where an already heavy load of current and previous laws have failed. The “prescriptive” laws have proven anything but.

THE PLANET will only say that it appears Paddock had nearly 20 rifles in his room, with at least one of them a fully automatic machine gun. Such a firearm is much harder to legally obtain than even a semi-automatic, giving full-metal-jacketed food for thought.

Video and audio of the shooting reveals long, continuous bursts of fire, leading one gun expert to guess Paddock had no military training. Such training teaches machine gunners to fire in short, pulsing bursts for greater control and accuracy. But with 22,000 live targets in full view from his looming hotel room, Paddock didn’t have to bother with such subtleties. He didn’t even have to aim. He simply needed to keep his finger on the trigger and move the gun back and forth like a lawn sprinkler.

Our focus will be on the impossible-to-resolve issue of freedom vs. security. Since The Patriot Act, a piece of Post 9/11 overreaction that issued draconian limitations on personal rights without improving security, the discussion — as with every national issue today — has splintered into two fundamental, uncommunicative camps. On the one end, civil libertarians offer an argument neatly summed by none other than perhaps the greatest American of all time. Benjamin Franklin said that “those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither.” The other side argues that securing personal safety comes first and to do that requires to voluntary sacrifice of individual freedom. This views holds that government should be allowed to violate constitutional and even moral rights when it decides conditions require such action.

The way out of this “dilemma” is to reframe the issue. Rather than an either/or approach — a Hobbesian all-powerful government vs. a impossible state of robust freedom (also known as anarchy) — we need to see this debate on a continuum with the Absolutist State of Hobbes at the far right and anarchy at far left. The proper response for a so-called “free” society should be well to the left of the center point, acknowledging that common sense and specific cases require individual attention.

Therein lies the problem with “more laws” and a blanket clampdown calling for more security. A blanket law cannot respond to every case. For example, the overarching, ultimately political rules from Big Government have turned every American into a suspected terrorist. Do you carry a smart phone? If so, you also carry a 21st century “ankle bracelet” that allows Big Data to track your every movement. Turn your smart phone to “off?” Doesn’t matter. The device still emits a treasure trove of information. Want to board an airplane or enter a ballpark to see a game? Then give up your backpacks, submit to a wand screening, empty out all pockets, and say goodbye to whatever items Clem, the Well Trained Security Dude, wants for himself. If your attractive and female, Clem says, so much the better. Pardon him when he lingers at certain body areas.

Back to Franklin: Note the astute qualifier in his statement. He talked of giving up “essential liberty,” which begs the question of what freedoms can be considered “essential.” The Founding Fathers thought “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” were among them, but those qualities are dad-burned difficult to define. Like a watermelon seed or a drop of mercury, when you try to pick it up, it slips away.

The Constitution tried to put some detail into the Preamble (the right to assemble peacefully, the right to say or print what we wished, the right to be free of unlawful seizure or searched, and so forth), into the body and the amendments. Nonetheless, the application of constitutional freedom can only be done on a case-by-case basis. That being the case, it will be important in the ensuing days and night to reject anyone who calls for extremity or who claims to have even “an answer,” let alone “The answer.”

Reason would have us all agree on the proper response to the Las Vegas mass murder and any such terrorist act. The power of government to unilaterally utilize its unprecedented power must be implemented in a way that respects individual freedom. Oversight and accountability must check the tendency of government to elevate proper security into a police state.

We realize that in today’s fractured, schismatic world where EVERY issue is politicized, this type of reasonable view has become unreasonable to expect. That reinforcement of screaming heads talking AT each other as an acceptable form of public debate will be the greatest cost of the Las Vegas shootings.

THE PLANET understands “freedom” as the “unalienable” right to act, think, and speak without physical, psychological, emotional, mental, or spiritual coercion. Unless one stands alone with an independence of thought based on the principle that “You own yourself,” that kind of liberty cannot happen.

Fact is, Americans love to lip-service Freedom but don’t want freedom. Land of the”free?” Unfortunately, only in song. Fact is, we are not free except to the extent that we do not apprehend the totality of our enslavement. Moreover, we have not earned the right to be free. What Eddie Poe called “the Imp of the Perverse” dwells coiled within the human heart, waiting to spring.

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“Here come the Jets like a bat out of hell. Someone gets in our way someone don’t feel to well.” — The “Jets” theme from West Side Story.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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