"It ain't what people know that causes trouble...it's what they know that ain't so."It is an interesting phenomenon to me how people can hold so tightly, fiercely even, to beliefs for which they have no basis for belief to which they can point, other than they have just always believed them, or it's what they have been told, or in many cases, they just want to believe them. Wanting something to be true, however, does not make it true. Being told they are true also does not make them true...and when it comes to truth, unfortunately, there is no safety in numbers. Just because "everybody knows" something to be true, also does not automatically make it so. It has been proven over and over that "the masses" can easily be fooled.
Belief in some myths are harmless and even a little bit fun. Believing in Bigfoot or a nocturnal, molar-collecting sprite is harmless. But particularly disturbing to me are the myths people cling to about government...many of which I have believed myself in the past. These myths are troubling because they are created and perpetuated by the very government system that are the topics of the myths. The very people who wish to wield power and control over our lives have, through government controlled schools, a sycophantic press, and bold face lies spread falsehoods about their own effectiveness, good intentions and indispensability, all in an effort to create a compliant citizenry who will never question their power or actions.
My path to recovering the truth, I am a recovering Neo-Con, began with simply being open to question my own beliefs and through reading history. I began to see that much of what I thought I knew was, in fact, distortions at best and in many cases, complete fabrications. I saw that it is not a matter of party, Republican or Democrat, since they were just two sides of the same coin. Both parties, on the whole, are populated by statist, central-planning power mongers. It was not even a matter of Right and Left, for many things I once believed as a rightist neo-con, I now reject. It is, rather, a matter of truth and fact vs. myth and lies. It is a struggle between liberty and tyranny.
In the video below from a 1977 lecture, Milton Friedman lays out five widely believed, and never-the-less false myths about government. Are you open to truth? Can you get past your own closely held myths and truly consider the logic and history of his arguments? Friedman says early in the video that "Somebody once wrote...a myth is like an air mattress. There's nothing in it, but it's wonderfully comfortable, and deflation causes an uncomfortable jolt." Get ready for a needed jolt concerning these five Myths That Conceal Reality:
- The Robber Baron Myth
- The Great Depression Myth
- The Demand for Government Service Myth
- The Free Lunch Myth
- The Robin Hood Myth.
