On Becoming A Firehose For Liberty

By, Chris Rossini
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Last week, I wrote an article "On Proclaiming Liberty Throughout The Land".

The following takes that article a step further:

Libertarians know that being a libertarian is not an easy task. Here you are with this knowledge of the benefits of peace, commerce, private property, sound money, etc…and yet the State and its believers have created the flipside...and you live in it.

Oftentimes, you can feel like the lone lightbulb surrounded by others who have the wool of slavery pulled over their eyes.

You can't be too hard on them though, because before you learned about liberty, you probably had the wool pulled over your eyes as well.

I'm not an exception…I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh, went through an Ayn Rand phase, and used to consider myself a Republican.

So you can't be too hard on others.

It can, though, be very easy to fall into the trap of pessimism. You may get into frequent disagreements with a cousin or coworker. You fail to convince them, so what chance can you have on making a big impact? You may be tempted to throw in the towel, and just live as a grumpy libertarian curmudgeon.

My plea to you: Don't.

You see, a life-jacket has been thrown to Liberty…and it's called the Internet.

The limits on who you can reach have been removed from merely your cousin and coworker. They may never get it, but that's not your problem anymore.

The focus is now on the multitudes around the world that are hungry for the knowledge of liberty. Your job is to help satisfy that hunger.

So instead of becoming a curmudgeon, become a Firehose of Liberty.

Start a blog, get on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube…and let it fly. Become a force for good.

By turning your attention away from those who will never be convinced, to those who are open and hungry for knowledge, you'll start to see that, unlike when you felt like a lone bright bulb, there are actually many many others like you out there.

Don't worry about views, follows, friend counts, etc. Don't worry about how you will get traffic and monetize. This isn't about fame and fortune. This is about getting the knowledge that's sitting between your ears out there. If you happen to make money, than that's just an added bonus.

You may get 5 visitors to your great article, and may be tempted into thinking that you're not reaching anyone.

Don't fall into that trap.

You see, as libertarians, we have the privilege of working with what Hayek called "spontaneous order". You oftentimes won't see the results that are presented in a mere view count.

What if one of your 5 visitors has 1,000 Facebook friends. Your visitor writes something to them based on your work. Without knowing it, you just reached 1,000 people.

When working with the spontaneous order, you can't get hung up on what is seen.

Below is a perfect example of the point that I'm trying to drive home here. It's a story of a man who saw a "Google Ron Paul" bumper sticker one day. He didn't know who's car it was, but he ended up Googling Ron Paul.

Well 5 years later, this same person, who saw that sticker and acted on it, created the The Ron Paul Super Brochure…3.5 million of them that went across the country!


One bumper sticker converted into 3.5 million pamphlets!

That's called "Spontaneous Order".

If the State had to fight against what was seen only, then we would be doomed. But it doesn't. It must fight against the unseen, which constantly runs circles around it.

So be that firehose (and I mean firehose, not a leaky faucet).

Bring it...each day!

When your light goes out someday, you'll be able to take comfort in the fact that you did everything you could to leave the prospects for liberty much better, and the world much brighter than when you arrived.