The Slippery Slope Into Totalitarianism

By Moshe Feiglin

12 Tevet, 5773 Dec. 25, '12 The distance between the average American and Newtown, Connecticut is much greater than the distance between the average Israeli and the place where approximately 200 people are slaughtered every day: Syria. Nevertheless, the slaughter perpetrated in Syria (and other places in the world) by people who are legally armed by their state doesn't really interest anybody. What shocks the enlightened world, including Israel, is not the millions slaughtered by states, but rather, those exceptions to the rule in which individuals - not regimes – perpetrate the slaughter. The authors of the American constitution wrote a document about as close to perfection as is humanly possible. They understood well that the first stop on the path to slavery is to rescind the citizen's right to defend himself, leaving him alone, helpless and vulnerable to the 'kindness' of the regime. Wherever a regime has become totalitarian, its first step is to disarm its citizens. We automatically assume that the state is a responsible power acting, first and foremost, for the benefit of its citizens. We feel good thinking that there is a big brother out there with whom we can deposit the responsibility for our fate. When a shocking shooting spree like Sandy Hook takes place, nobody seriously checks what violent films children are watching. Nobody talks about training armed citizens to prevent more of these insane shootings. The easy solution – the solution that does not require taking responsibility – is to deposit arms and responsibility in the hands of the state. In Israel, the gun licensing procedure is more logical than its American counterpart. Nevertheless, the state tends to prevent its citizens from carrying arms. This is another expression of the ongoing erosion of human rights that began with the Oslo Accords and intensified with the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif. It is easy to slide down the slippery slope of totalitarianism. The loss of the ability to protect oneself is the loss of liberty.