IDEALISM IS A POOR STRATEGY FOR LIBERTY
We want to live in freedom. We want this country that was founded on individual liberty to once again become a country that champions individual liberty. America was founded on an this ideal; an ideal that holds tremendous meaning for most everybody reading this column.
But while an ideal is great for offering direction, there are dangers to holding too tightly or dwelling too deeply upon the image of what you would like to see fulfilled.
Researchers have found that when you are aiming for a personal goal, the practice of visualizing the end product can actually have a negative effect on your ability to achieve it. This finding runs counter to decades of self-help advice.
If you are holding in your mind an image of what a totally free society would look like; if you are measuring the political system in which you live, and comparing everything about it to that ideal, you will succeed in being eternally disappointed, dissatisfied, and even bitter.
The truth is...
