Tipping point.

[Eleanors38]

42. I appreciate this post, as it strongly suggest a larger issue than gun control...

that of mass perception or the lack thereof. What constitutes mass perception, naional mythology and agenda-setting, and common values any longer? Our country was founded with the virtually integrated assistance of mass media, the ability to replcate myths and messages quickly and by the thousands. Succeeding technologies (wire services, radio, T.V., even the Top 40), and a strengthened foundation of legitimacy, only enhanced a true communal notion of what "we" are about. In the short span of 25 years, the mass media model is in a state of collapse. The "commons" of even a "market place of ideas" is restricted, ironically, to just another roadside attraction. "You think polio vaccinations work? Hah! I got a hit-following of 10,000,000 who say bull shit to you! LOL!". Not only has the idea of national agendae been savaged, but so has been the notion of legitimacy.

With guns, I believe MSM is trying hard to reclaim that power of Ed Sullivan and Cronkite; perhaps deluding themselves with a patched together web/socal presence (look, Ma, we're HiTek, too!). But that "tipping point" refrained so often by MSM is a nostalgic grasp more instructive of where mass media is than where the instant issue of gun control stands. Frankly, the lack of activist presence supporting the gun control outlook suggests that the entire "issue" is miscast: Unclear goals, solutions looking for a problem, the gross reliance on prohibitions all point to a social construct with little bearing on vaguely explained societal problems.

Again, the whole blow up about Gunz is, in the words of a DUer years ago: A culture war by proxy.