Social Conditioning

My father taught at a small liberal arts college, English, for 40 years.  He was armed with a .38 police special, every day, in every class.  Of course he kept a jacket on, as did all professors in those years.  And a tie.

Now you may say, well he was a Southern man.  That explains being armed, and having a back-up derringer at his ankle.  But there were other professors that were armed.  One just did not know.  No one cared.  Everyone knew some people were armed.

His campus, like many schools, had a gun range and a gun club on campus.  Students with rifles, usually in cases, but not always, were no more unusual than a tennis racket.  That was true on campuses all over America.

My father smoked, like most professors, while teaching.  It would not occur to him to drink coffee during  class.  And coffee out of a paper cup would iconographically signal there had been a disaster.  Coffee in paper cups only meant Red Cross, huge disaster, etc.  Today professors drink coffee and would not think of smoking in class.  This is complete reversal is 100% a result of social conditioning.

Sure there were nuts who showed up places and began shooting.  They did not get very far.  In 1966 a drug addled Marine killed a dozen people from an Austin Tower (so many because he was sniping at people).  Texans got out of their cars and returned fire.  Cops and a civilian went up the tower and killed the Marine.   None of this "form a perimeter" and wait.  These four had to get past the sniper to get to the tower, work their way up, and then surprise him.  No one hesitated in those days.

But now there are more nuts with guns shooting up campuses than then, because we have far more people on school prescripted drugs, and most of the people, if not all in the last few decades who have shot up schools, had haywire med crisis.  And no armed professors and students.  Since guns are not allowed on campuses, the nutters head where they know they will not be challenged.  Gun free zones.  When seconds count, the police will be there in minutes.

Today police officers are conditioned to panic when they see a gun.  As we moved from police as constabulary to paramilitary police, police work has attracted those who tend to fear and panic, or just follow orders.  It was not always thus.  If we are going to have police, we need to return to a constabulary.

Here is a picture, from the 1960s, when my father was armed.  The Black Panthers were active in Washington State.  They took their grievance to the Capital.  And came armed, with shotguns.  Six leather jacketed, bereted revolutionaries, and one bored State Patrolman.  No one panicked back then.


Courtesy of Washington State Archives.

Bookmark this post --- Email this post