There's no way to know everything

(My Eastern New Mexico News column from January 30, 2019- posted in its entirety now that the paper's exclusivity has expired)

It's a bitter pill to swallow, and one many people can't accept, but you and I can never know everything.

This means if you want to act politically, you'll come from a place of ignorance whether you mean to or not.

I can't know the ultimate reality about Anthropogenic Global Climate Change-- commonly called "Global Warming".
I can't know all the possible consequences of building a new "Berlin Wall" between America and Mexico.
I can't know how a total gun ban would affect actual aggression statistics.
I can't know all the consequences of adopting fully socialized medicine in America.
I can't know exactly what my life would be like without police, government schools, taxation, laws, and all the rest of the socialistic things I would like to see go away.

And it doesn't really matter.

It's enough to know when something violates other people's rights and liberty; to understand I have no right to violate others even if I can't know with certainty how things would go if no one violates them. This knowledge-- that I have no right to violate others-- is sufficient and essential.

There are people who are arrogant enough to believe they can know it all. They may claim the reason you don't know it all is because you won't research it for yourself, or you're just not smart enough. They are dishonest.

They don't know it all. They only know enough to be satisfied with the position they've taken; a position which justifies their favorite violations of life, liberty, and property. If your research leads you to a different opinion, they'll claim you don't know enough until you agree with them.

They expect to use government against those who don't agree with them on whatever issue they care most about. They'd like to have you on their side; superior numbers, expressed through a vote, to gang up and force others to go along with what they believe. Yet, even if they are right in their beliefs, they aren't right about how to carry them out. No one has the right to use government violence to force you to go along with them. Such a right has never existed and can't be invented.

Accept that no one can know everything and that no matter what you know it can't give you the right to govern others, nor to select people to govern them on your behalf. This knowledge will liberate you. That's one thing I can know for certain.

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