Think 'voluntarily'
A comment on a recent column, where I suggested that the Albuquerque man "arrested" for being naked in the thrift store "probably needs treatment", made me realize something. I think "voluntarily" while most of "society" thinks "coercively".
When you hear a neighbor saying some person should do "X", what they are usually really saying is that they should be forced to do "X", not that they should be asked to do "X", and then left alone if they refuse.
It is obvious why a person in our society would just assume when "treatment" is proposed it is forced "treatment"; that is what most people would mean. We have come to assume that anything suggested is really being imposed, and it is often a safe assumption. I suppose I need to be more clear from now on when I state things of that sort, and I appreciate the commenter bringing it to my attention..
Are we really so weak, and our faith in our opinions so flimsy, that we don't feel there is good enough reason backing our ideas to win agreement with logic and principles? Are we so pathetic we must resort to coercion? No, we are not. That is where statists find themselves.
