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PROPHET OF THE PLAGUE | PAGE 1, 2
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The fear underlying Neville's laconic observation is central to the philosophy of both Heston and the NRA. "We are not a docile species capable of coexisting within a perfect society under everlasting benevolent rules. We are what we are," Heston told the National Press Club. Guns exist to support the "barricades that need to be in place to protect the individual."
Both Heston's Neville and Heston's NRA are unmoved by claims that crime has social causes. "They're sick," Richie, the black child Neville eventually finds and cures, pleads on behalf of the ghouls. Neville understands that his world's monsters emerged from circumstances -- international biological warfare -- over which they had no control. But only their conduct counts. "They're homicidal maniacs," Neville tells the boy. "Vermin." And the only reasonable course of action is to maintain enough firepower to exterminate them.
Similarly, Heston's NRA sees life as a desperate struggle to hang on to what you have -- held, as the NRA sees it, in the face of constant threat. Diverted by the organization's tortured logic -- for example, its ability to find in the Oregon schoolhouse massacre a triumph of handgun education -- we overlook the panic behind the group's polemics. Its members must keep their guns at any cost. At present, the cost of easy access to handguns is the lives of 14 kids per day.
Heston's Neville would have you believe that what he is defending is homestead. "It's where I live," the character says of his fortified suburban residence. "It's where I've always lived. It's where I'm going to live, and no one's going to drive me out of it." But for Neville -- as for the denizens of Arizona's gated communities, Tennessee's trailer parks and Montana's sandbagged bunkers -- the issue is really one of heritage. Neville has made his enclave a storehouse of Western civilization's music and mores and masterpieces. That legacy -- its existence ensured by an arsenal -- defines him.
Heston, a former civil rights advocate, will tell you that the traditions his group espouses are blind to both race and gender. Certainly, the NRA has increasingly solicited minorities and women. But if the organization's distinction between Us and Them is not overtly about color, it is about culture -- specifically the norms of what Heston cheerfully calls "wise old dead white guys who invented this country."
"The Omega Man," too, alludes to the transmission of cultural heritage when Neville uses his own blood -- 160-proof Anglo-Saxon blood -- to cure Richie of plague. Blood has always been a metaphor for lineage, and Neville's gesture is easily interpreted: Share my blood and be immune to the Family's deviancy. And when Richie leaves Neville's enclave, ambivalent about the tradition Neville stands for, the barbarians come pouring in. That lesson isn't lost on the NRA.
"Declining morals, disintegrating families ... and social mores that blur right and wrong are more to blame [for carnage] -- certainly more than legally owned firearms," Heston told the media. Neville's end isn't the result of arms, but of the animus of those who want to dispossess him of who he is and what he has. Guns don't kill Neville, people do.
"The Omega Man" presents a bleak picture of the American future. So does the NRA. Both trumpet self-reliance and individualism. In truth, those terms mask a refusal to believe that we can ever govern ourselves for the greater good. No entity will ever be sufficiently reliable to merit our trust. "There's never a cop around when you need one," says Neville in a wry quip that Heston has repeated on behalf of gun proponents. The irony is that Heston's superpatriots, under the guise of protecting American freedoms, can never commit to the existence of a polity. For Heston and the NRA, man always sees as a threat -- and is armed to meet it -- anyone whose values are different from his own.
"[He's] caught in a place he cannot stir from in the dark. Alone, outnumbered hundreds to one," Matthias observes of Neville. "Nothing to live for but his memories. Nothing to live with but his guns, and his cars, and his gadgets." Likewise, Heston and the NRA do not really esteem other individuals. In the end, they prize only themselves.
It may be disturbing that Heston defines the greatest danger to America as deviance from his personal values. And that 3.5 million NRA members appear to agree with him. And that they're all armed to the teeth. But we need to understand Heston's perspective before we sneer at it. As of now, he is America's leading voice on unlimited gun ownership.
SALON | June 11, 1998
Terry Diggs is a columnist for the Recorder newspaper and for Cal Law, where a version of this story appears.

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T A B L E_.T A L K
Join the discussion of Charlton Heston and the NRA in Headlines.

T A B L E+T A L K Is World War III inevitable? Where and when would it start? Share your dire predictions in the International Issues area of Table Talk D A I L Y+Q U O T E Baptists to women: Serve your man! R E C E N T L Y Does the CIA stereotype Jews as security risks? By Jeff Stein A CIA lawyer denied clearance to work at the White house sues -- and charges that the agency is purging Jews (06/10/98) A Clinton critic's tax-exempt lifestyle (Part Two) By Jonathan Broder and Joe Conason As head of the American Spectator's nonprofit foundation, conservative editor R. Emmett Tyrrell enjoys some unusual perks (06/09/98) The American Spectator's funny money (Part One) By Jonathan Broder and Joe Conason How the American Spectator's attempt to destroy Clinton blew up in its own face (06/08/98) The sad death of a soccer maverick By Tamsin Todd The tortured life of Britain's first openly gay soccer star ends in tragedy (06/05/98) Viagra for all hands! By Peter Scheer A class-action suit demands that insurers pay for Viagra for all claimants who say they're impotent. But what if they're just looking for kicks? (06/04/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		PROPHET OF THE PLAGUE \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - The fear underlying Neville's laconic observation is central to the philosophy of both Heston and the NRA. "We are not a docile species capable of coexisting within a perfect society under everlasting benevolent rules. We are what we are," Heston told the National Press Club. Guns exist to support the "barricades that need to be in place to protect the individual." Both Heston's Neville and Heston's NRA are unmoved by claims that crime has social causes. "They're sick," Richie, the black child Neville eventually finds and cures, pleads on behalf of the ghouls. Neville understands that his world's monsters emerged from circumstances -- international biological warfare -- over which they had no control. But only their conduct counts. "They're homicidal maniacs," Neville tells the boy. "Vermin." And the only reasonable course of action is to maintain enough firepower to exterminate them. Similarly, Heston's NRA sees life as a desperate struggle to hang on to what you have -- held, as the NRA sees it, in the face of constant threat. Diverted by the organization's tortured logic -- for example, its ability to find in the Oregon schoolhouse massacre a triumph of handgun education -- we overlook the panic behind the group's polemics. Its members must keep their guns at any cost. At present, the cost of easy access to handguns is the lives of 14 kids per day. Heston's Neville would have you believe that what he is defending is homestead. "It's where I live," the character says of his fortified suburban residence. "It's where I've always lived. It's where I'm going to live, and no one's going to drive me out of it." But for Neville -- as for the denizens of Arizona's gated communities, Tennessee's trailer parks and Montana's sandbagged bunkers -- the issue is really one of heritage. Neville has made his enclave a storehouse of Western civilization's music and mores and masterpieces. That legacy -- its existence ensured by an arsenal -- defines him. Heston, a former civil rights advocate, will tell you that the traditions his group espouses are blind to both race and gender. Certainly, the NRA has increasingly solicited minorities and women. But if the organization's distinction between Us and Them is not overtly about color, it is about culture -- specifically the norms of what Heston cheerfully calls "wise old dead white guys who invented this country." "The Omega Man," too, alludes to the transmission of cultural heritage when Neville uses his own blood -- 160-proof Anglo-Saxon blood -- to cure Richie of plague. Blood has always been a metaphor for lineage, and Neville's gesture is easily interpreted: Share my blood and be immune to the Family's deviancy. And when Richie leaves Neville's enclave, ambivalent about the tradition Neville stands for, the barbarians come pouring in. That lesson isn't lost on the NRA. "Declining morals, disintegrating families ... and social mores that blur right and wrong are more to blame [for carnage] -- certainly more than legally owned firearms," Heston told the media. Neville's end isn't the result of arms, but of the animus of those who want to dispossess him of who he is and what he has. Guns don't kill Neville, people do. "The Omega Man" presents a bleak picture of the American future. So does the NRA. Both trumpet self-reliance and individualism. In truth, those terms mask a refusal to believe that we can ever govern ourselves for the greater good. No entity will ever be sufficiently reliable to merit our trust. "There's never a cop around when you need one," says Neville in a wry quip that Heston has repeated on behalf of gun proponents. The irony is that Heston's superpatriots, under the guise of protecting American freedoms, can never commit to the existence of a polity. For Heston and the NRA, man always sees as a threat -- and is armed to meet it -- anyone whose values are different from his own. "[He's] caught in a place he cannot stir from in the dark. Alone, outnumbered hundreds to one," Matthias observes of Neville. "Nothing to live for but his memories. Nothing to live with but his guns, and his cars, and his gadgets." Likewise, Heston and the NRA do not really esteem other individuals. In the end, they prize only themselves. It may be disturbing that Heston defines the greatest danger to America as deviance from his personal values. And that 3.5 million NRA members appear to agree with him. And that they're all armed to the teeth. But we need to understand Heston's perspective before we sneer at it. As of now, he is America's leading voice on unlimited gun ownership. SALON \| June 11, 1998 Terry Diggs is a columnist for the Recorder newspaper and for Cal Law, where a version of this story appears. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E_.T A L K Join the discussion of Charlton Heston and the NRA in Headlines.