I once read that some Indian tribe had a respected member whose job was to teach others... by making all the wrong choices himself, and living with the results. There are times I think I missed my calling.

Knowing that the perception of me by others may not be the same as my self-perception, and given that my goal is to convince others, not bulldoze them into agreeing with me, writing is a good means for me to communicate. Writing makes it easier to control my knee-jerk reactions. Yes, libertarians have knee-jerk reactions too... perhaps more than most other people. Naturally, ours are more considered and wiser, but to listen to us, they can still sound like knee-jerk reactions. We, like many others who have really studied an issue, tend to jump all the way to final judgement, and issue proclamations like... "Dump the IRS", "End Public Schools", and "Down with the welfare state". That's especially true in politics, where little more than sound bites are possible. We can give you valid reasoning for those positions, but once we've been through all the study and thought that arrives at those conclusions, it's difficult not to just leap to the conclusion. Problem is, once the listener has decided it's a knee-jerk reaction, they're not likely to listen any longer.

We all have knee-jerk reactions. It's impossible to rethink every situation from scratch, so we record what we believe to be true, and react quickly based on what we've learned. That is, after all, the value of emotions. They're triggers based on what we've decided is good and true and of value... or to be suspicious or alarmed. They allow us to protect ourselves with quick reactions. A loud noise gets our attention and puts us on guard immediately. An out-of-place odor makes us look for it's source. Finding ourselves in an unfamiliar setting triggers caution. Those are all valuable responses that alert us quickly. If we had to think through all the possibilities that might account for a loud noise... before we reacted... we would have a lot more accidents.

I've always had an instant mistrust of men with curly hair. I have no idea why I have that bias, but I've had to work around it. Hopefully I can now give curly-headed guys a fair shake when I meet them, but it's a little scary to realize that reactions can be so illogical and ridiculous. I've learned, through other examples, that I need to examine my reactions frequently. It damned sure took time; as a young adult, I trusted my "instincts" and what I "knew" almost without question. Believe me, that's a formula for disaster.

Understanding that we must examine what we think we know is one of the great lessons of life. Being willing to accept that we might be wrong, and that we should take another truly honest look, isn't comfortable or easy, but it is immensely rewarding. It is, in fact, being honest with yourself... one of the very nicest things one can do for oneself. If you arrive at the same conclusion again, you'll be relieved. If not, you'll be closer to the truth.

I suspect we all know some people who hold that their self-assured image is more important to them than self-examination. They tend to give blustery knee-jerk responses to everything... way down to the kind of superior oil they use in their car. They have a quick and dirty "answer" for everything. They're easily identified by their unflinching claims that they "always" do some things, and "never" do other things, and often speak in platitudes. Sooner or later... if they're lucky... they'll reap a disaster they can't rationalize, and be forced to examine their "armored front".

My goal in No Force, No Fraud is not to necessarily convince you of the rightness of libertarian positions, but to get you to consider them... to arrive at your own conclusions, but with information you may not have considered before. When I first approached libertarian positions, I thought some of them were crazy. I was hearing the knee-jerk positions. Luckily, for me, I didn't turn away. Because some of their positions sounded right, I gave the "crazy" ones the benefit of a doubt, and a deeper study. It took time, and a lot of honesty consideration before the "light bulb" went on and I finally realized that libertarianism is an integrated ideology, not just a set of separate positions... that every issue is about personal freedom and individual responsibility, and that the core belief is No Force, No Fraud.

Libertarianism is not about being right. It's not a search for perfection. It's not about winning elections, or shifting power, or equality, or even good versus evil... it's about knowing the best way for humans to deal with each other to achieve the best possible results for everyone. As I've said before, we all know how to do it... we do it with our friends and neighbors all the time. Where we most often fail is in believing that forcing others through government is OK. It is every bit as wrong as forcing a friend to live by your rules. If you're a Christian, consider the Golden Rule. If you're a libertarian, it's "Honor your neighbor's choices", or "Live and Let Live".

Knee-jerk reactions are not trustworthy. They can be useful short-term, but still have disastrous long-term results. Examine the distant, long-term likely results of what you believe. Trust me... some of them are wrong. We all make mistakes... our challenge is to discover, admit, and correct them. Before we can correct them, we have to first admit that we were wrong... at least to ourselves.

Public officials who make mistakes are probably worse at admitting their errors than most of the rest of us. So much of what they value is wrapped up with their image, and they seem to believe that their public will lose admiration if they admit to mistakes. So, their reaction is usually an indignant sidestep from the truth, such as being disappointed at results, but shifting blame elsewhere or claiming that more money is needed for success... knowing full well that they're suggesting that we "get out of the hole" by digging even harder. Thus, we find ourselves embedded in serious programs that shouldn't have been started, but, once started, are self-perpetuating because to admit the mistake would be political suicide. Often, such programs were begun with blustery knee-jerk reactions, converted to catchy slogans, and justified with emotional appeals. There have been too many to list, but the major ones facing us now are the War in Iraq and the War on Drugs. Both were egotistical, elitist knee-jerks... "We'll just force things to be what we want", with little consideration for what will really occur in reaction to the use of force.