The thing that differentiates us the most from other animals is our tool usage. Yes, there are cases where animals might use a rock to break something, or a frond of grass to extract termites from a mound to eat, but primarily that is the extent of the tool usage by other animals.

Tool = Cool

We conceive of tools. We encounter problems, and our mind does not simply think about our own limbs and senses and how we can magically solve the problem. Our mind allows us to imagine things outside of ourselves which we can turn into extensions of ourselves to solve problems.

Language itself is a tool. It is a tool designed to convey thoughts from one mind to another. It is a tool to preserve knowledge for us to later regain or recall without having to go through the process of discovery again. The more extensive your understanding of language the more extensive the detail you can provide when sharing thoughts. We call this communication. This particular tool is another area where animals also will use it as a tool. Yet, we take language into far away places. We can use language to consider things we have never perceived. Language enabled us to conceive of the scientific method, mathematics, and so many things.

Source: giphy.com

Furthermore, I suspect that the rest of you reading this experience things mentally similar to me. Most of my complex thoughts involve words. I am not speaking out loud yet in my mind words are combining and organizing and I am thinking in terms of words. If this is true then knowing more words at a reflexive level seems like it would potentially enhance the complexity of our thoughts.

Why am I mentioning this? We have often heard stories of people wanting to learn to read. They then could learn science, they could communicate, and people that could read would not be able to as easily take advantage of them. Yet how often have you heard someone say that reading and increasing your vocabulary also enhances the complexities of what you can conceive of in your mind. I have not heard that stated, but that is my current pet hypothesis.

Our society is changing. It is less a society of bravery, courage, and adventure, though there is still some of that around. We are largely manipulated by fear. We are so conditioned by fear that when we fear something we become like a virus or parasite and feel we must spread this fear to others. "Did you hear about X, isn't that scary?"

Source: giphy.com

This has become the norm. We react in fear to things and rather than facing our fear we attempt to run from it. In the psychological terms of fight or flight, we often choose flight without even considering fight. When I say fight I am not necessarily meaning physical confrontation. I am meaning that we should consider IS THIS something to be afraid of? Is the direction I am thinking of running from this thing truly a good direction to head? How would my reaction of fear to this benefit someone? Is this source of fear the thing to fear, or are there other factors?

Fear is the mind killer

In this day and age I view FEAR as a tool. It is a tool for manipulating society. With FEAR and the conditioned virus like response society seems to have to it you can cause massive changes. You can cause people to overreact. You can cause people to embrace an idea that you propose simply by convincing them it is the answer to stopping their fear. To some degree FEAR is like a drug and society is addicted to it. You no longer have to work hard at making society afraid. They are so well conditioned that if the thing that they were afraid of is no longer and issue they will rush out on their own and look for the next thing to fear. Mainstream media as the awesome propaganda tool that it is will happily provide you with this drug. They will also carefully craft the flavor of this fear candy to try to steer the masses in the direction most beneficial to the agenda of those that own their company. When that is not clear they can always go with fear. Supply of the fear drug to meet the increasing demand.

Source: giphy.com

That was the first half of this post, and now I'd like to segue into the idea that inspired me to write this post.

A Room with a tool

When I walk into a room and am afraid of being attacked, I do not look for a gun. That monitor smashed over an assailants head will work quite well and provide some jagged edges for continued self protection. The old broken hard disk drive is quite heavy and when wrapped in a shirt, towel, or bag makes a highly effective flail.

It is hard for me to walk into a room and NOT find something I could use as a weapon if I need to. Defense is a problem. We are tool makers. We create tools to solve problems.

The media and the agenda loves to over report GUN VIOLENCE with the agenda of pushing for gun control. When statistically gun violence is down. A gun is also a tool. If someone wants to perform violence there is an infinite supply of tools that can do that. You cannot ban them all.

Ban the Ban hammer

Banning and controlling tools is NOT the answer. The answer is simply education, and when someone abuses a tool and performs aggression against another go after that offender. Deal with them. Do not attempt to make sweeping regulations to make certain something like it can never happen again. That is a FANTASY. It is not real. If someone wants to do violence your regulations will not mean anything. If they are already planning on violence then they have no reason to be afraid of laws and regulations if it is a gun or some banned item that they want.

Banning and controlling does not stop the bad guys. It really only has impact on the tool users that have no intention of using the tool in a negative way.

Gun violence statistics will sometimes include suicide. If someone committed suicide with a gun, the lack of having access to a gun is not going to stop their suicide. That simply was the most expedient and convenient method available to them. Some may choose to overdose on sleeping pills, drink a gallon of anti-freeze, hang themselves, jump off a cliff, step in front of a speeding truck, or any infinite number of ways they come up with to solve the problem they are perceiving. In those cases they are perceiving their life as the problem. We are tool users. We can solve problems.

Source: giphy.com

Words are tools. Political correctness, and banning of words is an attack on tool users. It is an attempt to control what you are permitted to think about. Freedom of Speech was NEVER about protecting popular (aka politically correct) speech. It was about protecting the unpopular speech. Freedom of Speech is not a sometimes thing. It is not something that is okay as long as you agree with the person, and if you disagree suddenly you advocate silencing them, throwing them in jail, fining them, or otherwise attacking them. THAT is not freedom of speech.

Free your mind, and the rest will follow...

Words are tools. Set them free. If you disagree use your words to convince people why, rather than exercising power to silence them. Silence them with reason, and thought. Don't silence them by abusing your position and by force. Good ideas do not require force. If you want to make a point of disagreement, then use words. If you do not feel you are an effective enough word smith so you would resort to force and power, then you are embracing laziness and/or fear of your ability to convince people. It requires constant practice and effort. You will get better. If you don't convince people today, then perhaps you will learn and convince someone tomorrow. Yet at least if you TRY this method you are not FORCING your will on another. You instead are meeting disagreement head on with REASON.

Source: giphy.com

Banning is FLIGHT. It is not FIGHT.

Banning is FEAR not BRAVERY.

Be brave, use reason, use your tools, use your words, and be free.

Steem On!

(Sources: Images where not cited were from pixabay.com TITLE image is by me)