The Left has always known that the chains must be placed not merely on men's bodies and property, but first and foremost on their minds

The Moral Disarmament of the Civilized World

By Daniel Greenfield
Monday, March 1, 2010

There are two ways to disarm a people. You can disarm them by taking away their weapons, or you can disarm their minds by taking away their willingness and ability to fight back. Disarmament a people by confiscating their weapons is a weak solution, because people can always make or smuggle new weapons. And without weapons they can still use their numbers and their fists. They can continue fighting so long as they believe that they have the right to defend themselves.

And that is the far great disarmament, the disarmament not of bodies, but of minds. The disarmament of the moral right of self-defense by convincing entire peoples that they are the perpetrators and their attackers are the victims. And that in any case self-defense is futile. That it is better to be quiet, to keep your head down, to learn to get along, to hope that your leaders make whatever deals are necessary to keep the peace, and to replace them with even more spineless leaders if they don’t.

That is the moral disarmament of the civilized world and it is going on every day, even in countries where there are guns to be found everywhere, the people’s minds are being disarmed, rendered helpless and impotent in the face of the enemy. Because it is not the gun that matters, but the man willing to fire it. A home can be filled with guns from top to bottom, but if the homeowner refuses to use them a robber breaks into his home, because he is not certain whether the robber might not have the right to burglarize him after all—then even surrounded by a thousand rifles, he has already been disarmed.

Like every great tyranny, the left has always known that the chains must be placed not merely on men’s bodies and property, but first and foremost on their minds. Merely placing chains on a man does not make him a slave. He must be taught to think of himself as a slave. To see himself as inferior and worthless. He cannot be prevented by escaping only through threats of violence, instead he must be brought to think that he does not deserve freedom. That whatever dissatisfaction he has with his current condition is his own fault, and that slavery is actually a kindness being rendered unto him. Then his body need no longer be chained. His body can be free and he will remain a slave, because it is his mind that has been chained.
Moral disarmament, Directed at depriving a man not merely of freedoms and rights, but of the idea that he has any freedoms and rights

There are many forms of moral disarmament, but they are all directed at depriving a man not merely of freedoms and rights, but of the idea that he has any freedoms and rights. The second amendment comes after the first, and so before the disarmament of self-defense, there is the disarmament of the pen and the voice, in which people learn to censor themselves, to replace “crimethinkâ€