While reading this week's Ron Paul Institute email newsletter, published by my colleague Daniel McAdams, I was struck by a quote that I've certainly read before, but it's just so relevant when reading it again today:

"We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

What is it about lies? 

Why are we constantly tasked with wading through a sea of lies?

Well, part of the reason is in the nature of human action. All human action is purposeful behavior. Every action that we choose to make is an attempt to achieve a goal that we've set for ourselves.

In addition to choosing the goal, we also choose the means that we believe will achieve that goal. This applies to complex and multi-step goals, as well as to the simplest and most immediate goals. 

For example, let's say that you're dissatisfied because your leg itches. Your goal is to alleviate the itch. Your means in doing so is to use the nail on your index finger to scratch it.

Purposeful behavior. Chosen goal. Chosen means.

Few people think of something so simple as scratching an itch as "goal setting," but that's exactly what it is. That's what every action that we take, every single moment of our lives, is.

So when you look out at 7+ billion people in our world, all hustling and bustling about, what you are seeing is human action. Purposeful behavior; with each behavior being chosen at that moment by that individual.

Now, the libertarian philosophy is this: non-aggression.

The ideas of Liberty preach that one should "pursue one's own happiness" (i.e., choose the goals that make you happy) but make sure that you do not harm another person (or their property) when you do so. Make sure that the means that you choose, and the end that you choose, do not aggress against anyone else.