People who support the state consciously or unconsciously, wholly or in part – why do they do it? I see a lot of moral condemnations in the liberty community. Call them sheeple, tell them they’re asleep, say they should be hurt. Whatever. But WHY do they do it? This might be a question you have given up answering or never even thought of. Maybe you don’t care. But you should.
As Marshall Rosenburg describes in the above video, at the bottom of everything is human need. People want security. We want to know someone will help us if our life falls apart. We want to trust our neighbors. We want food available at a reasonable price. We want nice things.
But, instead of understanding people in terms of their needs, we inject a pathology or psycho-analysis into the conversation. That screws it all up. It dehumanizes. It’s not communication. It’s avoidance of communication.
The next time you speak with a state supporter, ask them what they need that they think the government provides them. Take notes and post a comment, email me or write your own blog post about it. If we all do this, we will soon have a small database of new information. We can use this to be better salespeople for liberty.
