Key personality trait #2 - Curiosity

The second key personality trait for someone who discovers liberty is Curiosity. This second trait builds on the first key personality trait: Skepticism. The skeptical person isn't willing to blindly believe the conventional wisdom. The skeptical person thinks that there might be more to the story than what he's been taught in school or what the media is portraying as the opinion that he should hold. But skepticism isn't enough. There also needs to be a level of curiosity in the person in order for him to take the next step.

I could probably also call this trait "thirst for knowledge", or "truth seeking", or "passion for learning". These all have similar meaning. What I'm talking about here is the trait that drives people to want to learn more.

In my case, this trait has played a large role in my path to discovering liberty. In my last post, I talked about how my skepticism about human-caused global warming led me to Austrian economics and ultimately to libertarianism. More accurately I would say that it was my skepticism that pointed me in the right direction, but it was my curiosity that helped me to travel that path.

Curiosity is what drove me to read Meltdown by Tom Woods. That book, more than any other, really opened my eyes to the existence of a whole school of thought in economics that differs from the mainstream point of view. That book introduced me to the Austrian school of economics and to Ron Paul and to the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Again, I was pointed in the right direction, but it was my curiosity that provided the motivation to take the initial steps of visiting the Mises.org website, learning more about Ron Paul and the Austrian school of economics. The real work was in reading the books and articles and watching the videos and listening to the lectures and then ultimately internalizing what I've read and watched and listened to.

Looking back on my own experiences I definitely think that it was my innate curiosity that has fueled my journey down this path toward discovering liberty. My skepticism regarding the mainstream point of view is what got me aiming in the right direction, but it wasn't enough without a healthy dose of curiosity to motivate me to keep moving down the road.