Show Me the Evidence

A 1700 word essay examining how we would all be better off if we followed Gil Grissom's advice on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" to "follow the evidence."Let’s face it: the concepts of “freedom” and “rights” and “morality” are not that complicated. Any reasonably bright child can grasp the essentials involved. It serves the tyrants’ goals, however, to “complexify,” if you will, these fundamental ideas of how people should deal with one another. After all, if such basic issues are not easily grasped except by the experts, then, by golly, the experts ought to be the ones in charge of making the decisions.A similar mindset besets the myriad problems politicians and citizens argue endlessly about. Respecting property rights, refusing to initiate force against peaceable neighbors, and acknowledging the moral autonomy of adults will set in motion processes that allow individuals to discover what works best in creating a decent society. Pretending that only “government” can solve our problems is a daft falsehood.The evidence has long been in on what works and what does not in these and other areas of concern. Any honest person who has even minimal respect for the facts can see for himself what course Americans should follow in reaching our individual goals.But, of course, the statists and the collectivists and the irrationalists care not a whit for evidence. It is a waste of breath and energy to expect otherwise of these fascists and tyrants-in-training. We cannot convince them. We can only beat them.