Carson, Guns, Antisemitism and The Holocaust In 2016
Uncle Ben isn’t about antisemitism as much as he is about presentism.
Ben Carson is on a mission, and part of it entails hanging red meat for some in the electorate. He has contended that the Holocaust would’ve been “greatly diminished” if the Jews had guns.
Sure. so would’ve slavery if blacks were armed, and internment if the Japanese were armed. No doubt an armed target is far more difficult to overcome, but his mistake is in looking at the event after-the-fact. No one then knew what would happen. The Jews were largely docile, compliant business people accepting of being pushed around. Had a large number been armed, the Germans most likely would have been willing to accept casualties and to attack Jews in the open.
Rounding Up Guns
Anyone giving such an order aren’t coming with the police. It would be the military trained and equipped to be shot at. Civilians rarely prevail against trained military which is what makes some of these types of arguments ludicrous. Moreover, if the military expects armed resistance they bomb, strafe, snipe and sometimes gas first. The notion that privately owned guns would stop a government hell-bent on disarming the populace is a pipe dream. So much would be different in that kind of oppressive society that we can’t relate it to what could happen today where people would still have the will to fight back. Rights and freedoms get eroded over time, not overnight. People adjust to their freedoms being taken away.
Antisemitism
The argument about whether the Jews in Europe should have owned guns or should have given up guns they owned is not anti-Semitic in itself. Nor is the idea of the “passive” Jew. The anti-Semitism is when people argue that Jews refuse to take up arms to defend the countries where they lived while reaping the benefits of living there. People have claimed the same of Jews in this country; specifically, that the Jews evaded the draft while other Americans fought in WWII.
The problem here is less anti-Semitism, and more “knowing what we do now” thinking. Carson’s scenario presumes knowledge of the coming Holocaust and all it would entail. Again, a good case can be made that armed people are a more difficult target, but his is an argument in need of a better foundation.
Presidential Candidate Carson
Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford excelled at what they were chiefly famous for, but many winced when they offered their “wisdom” more broadly. Carson is in that same vein. What’s funny is that the only thing that qualifies a politician for office in our union is electability. Sage? Wisdom? Not a necessary qualification for office.
