A question of leadership

[unixronin]

Let us skip, for the moment, long arguments about what form of government is best, and consider Robert Anson Heinlein's assertion (via Lazarus Long) that democracy is doomed to fail once its citizens realize they have the power to vote themselves bread and circuses, and that possibly the best and most stable form of government is a benevolent dictatorship.

I will emphasize at this point that this is not a debate on whether he was right.  If you disagree with the assertion, feel free to skip the discussion entirely if you wish, but please don't diverge into arguments about why it's wrong.

The point here is quite simple:  Assume for the moment that Heinlein's, or Long's, assertion is correct.  That stipulated, and under that condition, what I solicit is your opinion as to who might make a good Supreme Leader, and more importantly, why.

Conditions:

• Your candidate may not be fictional.
• Your candidate must be currently alive.
• Your candidate need not be a current public figure.

Beyond those ground rules, it's wide open.  Go for it.

Comments

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

About arming good citizens... bbwoof has a handgun, kept unloaded in a box in the closet.

That didn't prohibit a nutcase from committing suicide-by-cop last spring, in the street a hundred yards from our rear window. Even if the fellow had run from the police officer into our back yard, instead of brandishing his BB gun and threatening him, it would not have made sense for bbwoof to dig out his handgun and go outside looking for him. He would have just got in the police officer's way, and could have been shot by the police himself. ("He was a wild-haired almost-naked 300-lb man waving a pistol, of course I shot first and asked questions later!")

bbwoof's handgun didn't help when an argument between the brother and boyfriend of a neighbor's teenage daughter turned ugly a few weeks ago. It's unclear about whether they were arguing over the girl or over drugs. Boyfriend was standing in their front yard, brother was up on the front porch. When boyfriend took out a gun, brother turned to flee inside and got shot in the butt. Boyfriend was caught hiding in the alley by the cops.

bbwoof could have gone out onto our front porch while the teens were arguing and told them to shut up. He's done similar things before. But he would not have done so while flourishing his handgun. That would have simply escalated the situation, and resulted in either the kid in the dark street taking a shot at bbwoof as he stood well-illuminated under the front porch light, or in the neighbor's son calling the cops on bbwoof.

Heck, even if someone were to break into our home at night, would bbwoof's handgun be of any use to us? By the time we heard any noise over our snores, and realized that the creaky floorboard was not the cat, would he have enough time to get the box down from the top shelf of the closet, locate the weapon and ammunition, and load it -- stealthily, in the dark? We'd be better protected by first quickly locking the bedroom door, calling 911 on our cell phones, and getting the hell out of there through the bedroom window.

The problem is that good citizens don't start trouble, they don't shoot first, and they don't act crazy. Therefore they will always be at a disadvantage, armed or not, when confronting bad citizens.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

About arming good citizens... [info]bbwoof has a handgun, kept unloaded in a box in the closet.

That didn't prohibit a nutcase from committing suicide-by-cop last spring, in the street a hundred yards from our rear window.

Nor would I expect it to. Ultimately, you cannot prevent suicide. Someone who really wants to die can ALWAYS find a way. I submit that the best way to handle the problem is to not try so hard to prevent it that would-be suicides resort to means that take five or ten or fifty people with them. But then, I have a personal conviction that any right to life is hollow without a right to terminate that life when you see fit.

bbwoof's handgun didn't help when an argument between the brother and boyfriend of a neighbor's teenage daughter turned ugly a few weeks ago. It's unclear about whether they were arguing over the girl or over drugs. Boyfriend was standing in their front yard, brother was up on the front porch. When boyfriend took out a gun, brother turned to flee inside and got shot in the butt. Boyfriend was caught hiding in the alley by the cops.

As a counter-example, I submit the occasion when jilara heard a fracas outside, went to the window, and saw the ne'er-do-well abusive boyfriend of the downstairs-and-over tenant dragging her screaming toward the alley by her hair. She stepped out on her deck with her pump shotgun, racked the slide, and demanded, "Is there some PROBLEM here?" Boyfriend dropped the neighbor and fled. My recollection is neighbor subsequently obtained a restraining order; it may have been because of jilara's intervention that she was alive to do so.

Heck, even if someone were to break into our home at night, would bbwoof's handgun be of any use to us? By the time we heard any noise over our snores, and realized that the creaky floorboard was not the cat, would he have enough time to get the box down from the top shelf of the closet, locate the weapon and ammunition, and load it -- stealthily, in the dark? We'd be better protected by first quickly locking the bedroom door, calling 911 on our cell phones, and getting the hell out of there through the bedroom window.

I venture to suggest that this illustrates the folly of keeping a weapon in the house stored in such a way that you can't get to it in time if you need it. In your scenario, I can have the .45 in the lockbox bolted into my headboard in my hand and ready to fire in three seconds.

If you keep a firearm stored unloaded and so inaccessible you can't get to it in time to use it, and yet store it unlocked, all you're doing is providing a free weapon to the first burglar who breaks in when you're out and tosses the place.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i need one of those lock boxes, a .45 under the pillow is slightly uncomfy.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

a neighbor of mine had a burglar arrested after she had held him at gun point. beteween the time he got locked up and the time he got released, she had sold her revolver. i noticed that this clown was showin up at her gate everynight in a different vehicle. after the 3rd time, i got the story from her, because the arrest had happeed when i was living out of state. that night, i sat on my front porch cleaning my Mossburg 500A. when said clown arrived on a bicycle, i had just screwed down the pistol grip. i slipped a few rounds of #4 buck into the mag, followed by a snap cap. when i saw the clown, i racked the shotgun. he looked over at me and i grinned at him. he never came back after that.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

A lockbox bolted to the headboard is a good idea.

Where do you get such a thing?

(take 2, corrected)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, mine came from an outfit called GunVault. They were apparently out of business for a while, but they're back. Check them out at their web site. (http://www.gunvault.com) There are others, including one outfit that makes safe specifically intended to be installed in vehicles.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I should also mention that not only is the box bolted into the headboard, but the headboard is bolted to the bed frame, which is a queensize waterbed frame and weighs probably 200 pounds all told. No-one's gonna just grab it and walk off with it, and no-one's prying it open without serious tools. I don't know if the backup cylinder lock is vulnerable to the Kryptonite Bic exploit, but even if it is, where it's mounted I doubt you could get enough access to try it -- there's only a couple of inches of headroom over the lock.