The knee-jerk reaction. Kind of a funny word picture, isn't it? Well, that is, if you can see beyond the cliché. The doctor taps on your knee with a tiny chrome hammer, and smacko, your foot jerks up and punts the doctor across the room. That's the knee-jerk reaction. You get tapped, you kick. Not much thought involved in that, is there? It is a reflex.
It is amazing how this process works with "issues" and "buzz words" and political hot topics. Someone mentions a tiny jumble of words, and our mouth opens and spits out an opinion, and the puzzling thing is that the opinion that spews forth is rarely our own.
We lug around a bag full of these knee-jerk reactions, ready to counter every evil person, every liar, naysayer.
