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The crowd gathers as the speaker begins.  “Two times two is four,” says the speaker!  The crowd murmurs in acceptance.  “Three times three is nine,” the speaker continues.  The crowd murmurs a little more.  The speaker continues on for some time.
 

“Four times four is sixteen.”
“Five times five is twenty five!”
“Six times six is thirty-six!”
“Seven times seven is forty-nine!”
“Eight times eight is sixty-four!”
 

The crowd is just eating this speech up!  Nothing has been this marvelous since each member of the crowd’s childhood Christmas morning opening up any quantity of gifts they had to do nothing more than having to wake up for!  So as the speaker continues telling the audience what it can verify the complication of the things being relayed changes suddenly!
 

“Three hundred and forty-six times eight hundred and fifty-one equals three hundred fifty-four thousand and forty-seven!”
 

The crowd goes absolutely berserk!  There is cheering!  There is congratulating of the speaker!  There is just absolute celebration of a group of people so proud to be witnessing the wonders before them!  But it’s all a sham!

Three hundred and forty-six times eight hundred and fifty-one is 294, 446, not 354,047.  The speaker duped all of the people in the crowd.  The speaker cheated his audience!  He led them to believe he was credible.  So what went wrong?
 

The truth is that this applies to everything we do in our lives.  Many in the liberty movements will vehemently swear this fits the narrative of “statists” perfectly.  However, I actually had so many liberty minded folks in mind when I crafted that scenario.  Why?
 

Because it is easy to jump to conclusions and be misled, is why!  Being misled is something that happens to everyone regardless of political ideology.  It doesn’t matter if it is pro-government or anti-government.  It doesn’t matter if it is pro-voluntaryism and Nonaggression Principle or pro-party politics and necessary evils.  What matters is defining context for clarity and understanding how to break down ideas.  Basically this is entirely about not regurgitating and memorizing facts and ideas to repeat later.
 

That’s how the crowd was misled.  It’s easy to be misled when we do that.  In order to avoid such in this scenario the crowd needs to understand how addition and subtraction works prior to learning the rules of multiplication and division.  By understanding those rules it is easier to break down multiplication problems.  When this is understood it becomes apparent that 346 times 851 is nothing more than 346 groups of 851 that need to be added together.
 

See how that works?
 

Then understanding how addition and subtraction works requires understanding how counting works.  And counting works because of how we label quantities and in which order these should appear in terms of quantity, from none to more or most to none.  But why do we label quantities?
 

To organize is why we label quantities.  And we organize for control of concepts to aid in our manipulation or interaction of our surroundings, including other people.  Are you following so far?

Both proponents of government and advocates of liberty are guilty of this mistake.  They find something they agree with, witness another stating something that seems to match what their sentiment of thought progression follows and viola!  Political party activists cheer for Trump about border security.  Political party activists cheer for Hillary about welfare programs.  Political party activists cheer for Gary Johnson about fiscal responsibility.  And dissenters of government cheer and spread the message of anti-government from individuals such as Rose, Molyneux, Cantwell, Kokesh and more!
 

“But, but…At least spreading knowledge about how government is the problem is a good thing!”

Well, yes and no!
 

Do you like being called a parrot as an advocate of freedom?  Probably not, I’d venture to guess.  In fact you probably take at least a mild offense to such a label.  And that is the same minimal feeling an advocate of government would walk away with.  However, by the logic of so many advocates of freedom, liberty, self-ownership, and voluntaryism, it is a justly applied label.  This is true by the logic of calling things as they are!

Don’t like being called a ‘statertot!?’  Don’t advocate government!  Don’t like being called a ‘parrot?!’  Don’t repeat things that you can’t readily explain as simply as possible when asked without telling others to read a specific book or listen to some content that helped you understand in sentiment but not necessarily in depth detail enough to explain; unless it is your own content!
 

But why is that important?  Long story short; it’s about backing up the checks your mouth writes with your previous intellectual labors.  If we promote something and can’t explain it then we have two options.  Explain it in detail to ensure the audience has the utmost clarity or simply relay that you don’t understand but feel it to be right!  There is nothing wrong with the truth except to those whom want to promote the ideology definitive answers are strength while admission of nescience or simply not knowing is a sign of weakness.

Are you starting to follow my path of thought here?
 

It’s easy to call someone a sociopath, statist, parrot, or even a racist and bigot.  It’s far more difficult to understand the context of why people do what they do in order to understand their position better.  If someone is labeled a sociopath, then the question is ‘why?’  Is it because they like to control others?  If so, why do they like or want or prefer to control others?  The answer the second question is not, “because they are sociopaths.”

The answer to the second question is the context of why those individuals make the choices they do.  This is the entire fault with those whom follow others blindly.  And guess what?  These people exist in both camps of freedom and slavery, of government and no government.  These people refuse to break down concepts and scapegoat other choices in their lives such as children, finances, and entertainment.
 

It’s okay to say one does not know.  But to label someone something and not be able to explain why that label is given becomes an intellectual road block.  Placing a label on someone and simply stating they are such because they ‘support government,’ ‘want to control others,’ or only ever repeat things that others say is not enough.

So before beginning to promote what we want to see in the world it is rather a good idea and of sound advice to understand how to break down concepts.  Understand the things in the world we want to promote, disassociate with, and not support beyond labeling them things that often come across as derogatory.  Be willing to entertain questions and not immediately assume that the questions are meant to destroy or disrupt.
 

Make sure that you fully understand what you are promoting or be willing to admit that you don’t.  Take a stand in your own mind and be ready when others take a stand, either against you or with you.  Just remember that comprehension brings clarity, peace, and stability.  Without comprehension inquiries into our promoted philosophies often seem like attacks when in reality they are nothing more than honest inquiries and constructive criticism.

-JLD

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