Universal Reason

While I was in the middle of reading Descartes last week, I took a moment to scroll through my Facebook feed. Across the feed, news headlines were prominent. It only took a few minutes to realize there had been another school shooting, this one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As my reaction has been since every shooting I've heard about since Sandy Hook, I felt a flash of anger, followed by resignation. Once again, we as a nation are burying the bodies of children. And once again, the only thing some individuals will say is that "it's not the time to focus on the issues of gun control or mental health. It's a time to pray and heal." As I've believed since Sandy Hook, that's a cop out. It doesn't address the problem or offer a solution, it simply shuts down any follow up since no one wants to be accused of being insensitive to mourners in the wake of such tragedy.

So, as I return to Descartes I start to think about his concept of universal reason. Maybe the concept is universal, but we as American have just not been grated entry into that club. Or maybe, it's our elected officials who have somehow lost this reason once they take the oath of their office. The percentage of Americans who support common sense gun control measures continues to rise with each new mass shooting. Yet, nothing is done because we are told over and over that to implement such measures will not stop bad people from getting guns. While this argument may have truth, we're all heard the quote, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results." Where is the moral reasoning? If doing nothing hasn't worked over and over, shouldn't we try something?  At this point, anything would be better than nothing. I leave you with several videos I've come across in regards to the gun debate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB7MwvqCtlk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbJKhvmshGs