The really funny thing is that this quote is from “Beyond This Horizon” by Robert A. Heinlein.
It’s one of his lesser works, but it features a government that monitors and encourages human breeding and keeps a lower caste of ‘control naturals’ to ensure there is wild stock on hand.
Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gun-fighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things that kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both.
The really funny thing is that this quote is from “Beyond This Horizon” by Robert A. Heinlein.
It’s one of his lesser works, but it features a government that monitors and encourages human breeding and keeps a lower caste of ‘control naturals’ to ensure there is wild stock on hand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_This_Horizon
full quote
Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gun-fighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things that kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both.