Why have we put bureaucratic obstacles in the way of pilots having weapons? Because the administration has yielded to anti-gun propaganda, the goal of which is to make us all helpless sheep who delegate the function of defense (no natural right of individual self-defense any longer existing in their minds) to the ominipotent and omnicompetent federal government. Again, what is the underlying “liberal” belief? That our true being is in the realm of pure intentions, which we must not sully by protecting our fleshly existence in the created world.

I agree with Bill. One could say that the essence of liberalism is to redefine man, God, world, and society—Voegelin’s “primordial community of being”—as ideas. This process began with Protestantism, which redefined Christian experience as the affirmation of an idea (if you _believe_ that Jesus is your savior, then you are saved), rather than, as under Catholicism, as participation in a community of being. Then this idea became secularized into the idea of equality, and liberalism was born. If you believe that all people are good and equal (the only exceptions being the people who deny that belief), then you are a good person.

Speaking of guns, the increasingly valuable Claremont Review of Books has a fine review of John Lott’s work in its recent issue:

http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/fall2003/bessette.html