Tag Archives: Voluntary

Practicing Political Pacifism

Veresapiens LogoTo vote or not to vote, that is the question that brought Will Shanahan to a conclusion very similar to our ongoing discussion here about ‘Concurrent Voluntaryism’:

This just leaves one question to answer; how should one go about changing the current state of affairs if not through voting? The answer is through voluntary interactions among those whom are needed to change the world in the way that you see fit. Don’t attempt to change the world through voting or through the use of government. After all, government is force and brute force is the lazy way to solve any problem. Regardless of the immorality involved, an idea that requires forced cooperation of the people involved is probably not that great of an idea. What would you prefer? A world you changed dramatically through the instruments of coercion or a world you changed minutely through voluntary interactions?

Concurrent Voluntaryism

Concurrent Voluntaryism – The Plan

Veresapiens LogoWouldn’t it be nice to minimize the level of government coercion in your own life right now, without having to wait for the whole country to wake up?

We have lots of interesting theoretical discussions about how we could better organize our society if we could just get rid of, or at least minimize, government, but no one seems to have a working plan to deal with that 800 pound gorilla blocking our path to a better society.

Maybe we’ve just been going down the wrong path.

Instead of spending all of our time and energy fighting the gorilla, perhaps we should simply follow a different path…

Earlier, I announced The Start Of A Truly Human Society and explained How We Can Have A Voluntary Society And The State.

In short, a voluntary society does not want to govern, so it is not competing for the right to govern. It considers those who govern to be ‘a criminal gang writ large’. The presence of a large, well-armed criminal gang is unfortunate, but does not preclude non-coercive people from conducting their affairs in voluntary ways, in every way possible.

Some of the big goals I have for our concurrent, voluntary, Truly Human Society are:

  1. To enable individual voluntaryists to gain the benefits of a community of like-minded people and organizations.
  2. To expand the range of voluntary options available to those who prefer to avoid coercively funded or operated organizations.
  3. To allow us to demonstrate that voluntaryism is not utopian.
  4. To instantiate voluntaryist structures and mechanisms ahead of time so as not to be caught unprepared in case any fortuitous changes lead to a period of anarchy or minarchy.

So here’s the plan…

The path to our voluntary Truly Human Society is actually simplified in some ways by the fact that the State is still present. Because we are not talking about ending the State as part of our plan, it means that we do not have to include in the plan such things as how to manage the transition of everyone who is currently dependent on the State.

This concurrent approach also simplifies our task in that we are not trying to satisfy everyone. Our Truly Human Society, being voluntary, will be comprised of only those who want to participate. We can implement just those things that we voluntaryists are interested in implementing.

In the plan itself, there is a primary piece and an optional piece. (The optional piece is actually aimed at the gorilla, because I can’t resist the urge to give him a poke.)

The primary part of the plan is aimed at reducing our day-to-day exposure to coercion.

Everything involved with government and its cronies entails coercion.

Government uses coercion to give itself monopolies in many areas, such as postal service, police, etc. And, government uses coercive regulations to support cartels for cronies in almost every area where big business has an interest.

Beyond the open coercion of enforcing monopolies for its ‘services’, there is also the method in which those services are funded. Voluntaryists well understand that government can’t offer them anything that wasn’t originally taken via coercion from someone else. Usage of government services, then, involves us in the coercion of others.

So, the primary part of the plan is to find ways to shun the monopolies and cartels that government attempts to force us to patronize.

Alternatives may be hard to find, in many cases, thanks to the successful efforts of the criminal gang. But we can all look – and share with each other what we do find.

Sometimes alternatives are not hard to find, just expensive relative to the coercively funded monopolies and cartels. (Private schools, for instance.) But if we purposefully direct more business to these alternatives it will encourage more start-ups and help bring down prices through greater competition.

Even where the alternatives do come at a relatively higher cost, that may still be acceptable, given the added value to you and I of thwarting the monopoly.

For instance, I used to go to a shooting range at a state park, which charged just $3 per hour. It was a very nice facility, and clearly the $3 from users was not fully funding it. Now that a private range has opened near me, I quite willingly give them my business at $18 per hour.

One potential bonus effect of enough of us shunning the monopolies and directing all of our business to their competitors can be seen in the looming bankruptcy of the US Post Office. Maybe that will become a template.

It seems that most people think poorly of politicians and government bureaucracies. But they also hold to the belief that government, even though composed of only politicians and bureaucrats, somehow provides valuable, necessary, even critical, services.

When people complain to us about government, we say “So why don’t we just get rid of it?”. But they then simply fall back on their list of important things “only government” can do.

So, for the second (optional) piece of our plan, I envision us identifying and supporting, or even creating, private equivalents to government services, so that every time the doubter says “only government can do X” we can point to an existing private alternative.

And, the private alternatives will no doubt provide better, more useful, services.

Take consumer protection, for instance, which lots of people see as a critical function that justifies the existence of government. Do you remember when all electrical devices (in the US) used to have the little round UL tag on the cord? UL was (is) a private company that rigorously tested new products for safety, and awarded them its seal if they met the appropriate standards.

UL was basically incorruptible. They knew that if they ever gave undeserved certifications and lost their reputation, they were finished. Same thing with Consumer Reports.

Contrast that with government ‘watchdog’ agencies that have well-deserved reputations for being bought and paid for, or ‘captured’, by the big crony industries they are supposed to be protecting us from.

All we seem to get from the government consumer protection agencies are lots of ugly, moronic warning labels all over products, and then when products are proven, by others, to be unsafe, they simply blame their ‘limited’ budget and go right back to work protecting their crony bosses.

If you think back to the recent controversies over Bovine Growth Hormone (rbGH) in milk and BPA in plastic bottles, the FDA fought tooth and nail to support the use of both of them until private organizations like EWG were able to bring enough public visibility and outrage to force the industry to ‘voluntarily’ abandon them. As far as I can tell, the FDA continues to support the use of both chemicals.

So the second piece of the plan is about continually undermining the path the gorilla sits on.

But remember, the primary reason to start our own Truly Human Society is to rid our lives of as much coercion as possible right now by working together as a community to find and support all of the private alternatives that will enable us to shun coercive government monopolies and crony cartels.

I will be blogging my ideas for our Truly Human Society on this site, and will be re-blogging pertinent posts from other sites here as well. Please add your ideas and suggestions in the comments.

Let’s get it started!

Gun Control – A Truly Human Approach

Veresapiens LogoDo the Gun Grabbers want everyone to be defenseless?

Do the Gun Lovers care more about their Rights than they do about innocent victims of gun massacres?

That may be how the Gun Control issue is being framed by Politicians and the Mainstream Media, but seriously, do those sound like real motives of real everyday people?

Now Government has certain motivations – and we could speculate as to what those might be – but let’s set those motives aside for a moment so that we’re not left right in the middle of the fog of politics. Let’s take a Truly Human approach to this issue, instead.

First let’s consider a pro-gun-control Mom. Is her primary goal likely to be to leave as many people as possible defenseless? No. Her goals are much more likely to be things like:

  • preventing more massacres
  • preventing crazies from killing
  • preventing easy gun access from leading to crimes of opportunity
  • preventing gun accidents

Consider an anti-gun-control Mom. Is she really all about Constitutional Rights? She’s likely more interested in:

  • defending children and others from massacres and attacks by crazies
  • enabling people to deter and defend against armed criminal attacks
  • enabling women and others to defend themselves against physically more powerful attackers
  • not being dependent on police response for protection from attacks

The two lists aren’t that dissimilar, and both are composed of reasonable goals.

So with similar end Goals we really have a dispute over the best Means to get there.

What options do we have for deciding between very Different Means of reaching Common Goals?

Emotions are the key to the Political Approach. As we have seen many times, by instigating and fanning emotional conflict, any issue can be hijacked for Political Purposes. So the first step is to avoid being drawn into the political false-conflict trap.

Setting emotion aside, it would seem then that the issue could best be resolved based on Practical considerations. But logical arguments can be constructed to support any proposal, and statistics, it is said, can be made to say anything if you torture them long enough.

And even if one side could show that its proposed means would lead to indisputably superior results, does that settle the issue? Remember, the saying that the ends don’t justify the means means means must be moral.

So that brings us around to the moral approach, and that’s where the Veresapiens moral philosophy has proven to be so useful. It provides the simplest way to see past the Political and Practical arguments of any issue and clearly distinguish Right from Wrong.

In fact, the approach is so simple it’s not even based on a whole list of morals like The Ten Commandments. It’s more like The One Commandment. And yet it clearly lights the way because it is directly related to the most basic thing that makes us Truly Human.

If you think about it, only Humans can choose to Trade for things they want, rather than Take. Only Humans can choose to live by the moral rule Thou Shalt Not Steal.

To be Truly Human, then, we must refrain from stealing what others own. So what does it really mean to ‘own’ something?

By definition, you can do whatever you want with something you own. You can use it, give it away, or even destroy it. That’s totally up to you. If you need Permission to do something with it, You Don’t Own It… at least not fully.

So, if someone Takes some or all of your Control over your possession, against your will, they are Stealing from you.

That means that if someone Takes any Control over your Life, they are Taking some Ownership of your Life. Taking ownership without permission is Stealing.

Veresapiens, then, would not make laws to Control Others’ Lives. That would be Stealing. That would be Taking Lives.

Also, if it is wrong for someone to steal your stuff, then it cannot be wrong for you to resist someone stealing your stuff. So, morally, you can Defend your life and all the other things you own.

So, as Veresapiens, we would not take what others own. And since we wouldn’t make laws limiting what others can do with what they own, we certainly wouldn’t make laws diminishing their ability to defend what they own (their life and possessions).

The gun-control Mom does want to make laws limiting what you can own, which at the same time would limit your ability to defend yourself and your possessions. The resulting laws may even authorize people with guns to come and take from you the guns you already own. Gun-control Mom’s goals are valid, but her Means are Immoral and unHuman.

Anti-gun-control Mom doesn’t want to steal your guns or impose controls on your ownership of your life or possessions. Her goals are valid and she has not advocated any immoral means.

Can the Veresapiens philosophy go beyond the question of the morality of means and ultimately propose the Ideal Solution to the problem?

The Veresapiens approach doesn’t require any one particular solution, or even that there be a single solution. Only that there is No Theft of liberty or possessions. Any and all means used to pursue our ends simply must be moral.

Once you accept that attempting to prevent a problem with laws Controlling People’s Behavior is Immoral, you will also begin to see that such laws typically make the original problem worse, and often cause additional problems.

The drug laws are an obvious example. Drug laws haven’t eliminated drug use. They’ve only managed to make drug use more dangerous, violent, and destructive.

Laws against possessing guns wouldn’t work any better than the laws against possessing drugs have worked.

So one effective means to solve many social problems may be to Eliminate already-existing Laws. For instance, instead of maintaining laws that declare schools ‘gun-free zones’, wouldn’t it make more sense to ensure that your child goes to school in a ‘well-defended zone’?

The Veresapiens philosophy not only guides you to more moral, and Truly Human, solutions, but also helps lead you to more effective solutions, as well.

You Can Be A Veresapiens Now

Which of these statements is true?Veresapiens Logo

Republicans are Outraged at Democrats!

Democrats are Outraged at Republicans!

Yes, both, of course.

Republicans accuse Democrats of using the Power of Government to Steal from working people to give Free Stuff to Lazy People.

Democrats accuse Republicans of using the Power of Government to Steal from poor and working class people through Preferential Treatment for Big Business.

Is it possible that Half the Country is Evil and the other half of the country is – Evil?

But Republicans don’t think they’re Evil. They believe they are Good.

Democrats? Same thing.

Maybe Politics creates this Confusion over basic issues like Good and Evil. With politics, what each side sees as Good looks like Evil to the other.

Maybe this is Done On Purpose.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple way to See Past the Politics of any issue and clearly Distinguish Right and Wrong?

If you could Discover a simple way to tell right from wrong that would also Light the Path to Freedom, wouldn’t that be worthwhile?

In fact, the answer is so simple it’s not even based on a list like The Ten Commandments. It’s more like The One Commandment.

And yet it clearly lights the way because it is directly related to the most Basic Thing That Makes Us Human.

We know that Man is not the only Animal that makes tools, or communicates, or lives in social groups, or builds homes.

What is it, then, that is Uniquely Human?

All living things need space to live in and things to consume. Non-Human living things simply Take what they need.

What truly differentiates Human from Animal is that a Human is able make the conscious decision to Refrain From Taking. A Human is capable of consciously Choosing Voluntary interaction, in Cooperation with others, to satisfy needs.

Humans choose to Trade, Not Take.

Humans choose to live by the rule “Thou Shalt Not Steal”.

Though all are capable, not every Man makes that choice. But, to actually make and live by that choice, is what it takes for Man to be Truly Wise, Truly Human. (The name Veresapiens comes from the Latin for ‘truly wise’.)

Thou Shalt Not Steal – simple, yet so important that it is considered The One Commandment of Veresapiens.

Humans have always considered Thou Shalt Not Steal so significant that it is a basic tenet of Every Major Religion.

What causes the morality of Thou Shalt Not Steal to be so universally recognized, right along with Thou Shalt Not Kill?

Is it possible that they are essentially two ways of saying the Same Thing?

Yes.

Your earthly lifetime is not infinite. You have one body and a Limited amount of Time to spend in it.

You may choose to Spend some of your brief Time creating something. In other words, you may Trade some of your precious Time for something else of value to you.

If a Thief Takes what you created, is he taking Your Life?

Yes.

It took your time to create your new possession. You Spent Time. That time is gone.

You Gave Up (some of) Your Life for that possession, so the Thief Took (some of) Your Life when he stole it.

And that is why Thou Shalt Not Steal is held Sacred, right along with Thou Shalt Not Kill, in all the major world religions.

Thou Shalt Not Steal is clearly an important commandment, but is it comprehensive enough to be The One Commandment?

Yes.

Let’s explore the meaning of Thou Shalt Not Steal a little further, and see how it manages to cover behavior from petty Theft to Slavery and Murder.

To define what it means ‘To Steal’, let’s first define what it means ‘To Own’.

At the most basic level, Ownership is not a financial term. To Own is to Control.

If you Own something, You can Make All of the Decisions about it, yourself. You can do whatever you wish with something you own. You can use it, give it away, destroy it, whatever. It’s totally up to you.

If you Need Permission to do something with it, You Don’t Own it… at least not fully.

Here’s an illustration of what I mean by Partial Ownership:

Suppose you ‘own’ a house. And suppose you bought the house with a home loan. And, finally, suppose that you rent out the house to tenants.

Financially, you own the house. You are the homeowner. However, your ownership rights have been voluntarily limited, as detailed in your mortgage loan agreement with the bank and your lease agreement with the renters.

For example, you own the house, but you cannot use the house as your home. You have agreed to give all of the normal residential usage rights (control) to your renters for the duration of their lease.

Also, you own the house, but you cannot tear it down and turn your property into a wildlife sanctuary. You have agreed to give up some rights (control), relative to the physical building, to the bank for the duration of the mortgage loan.

The important point here is that Control is Not All-Or-Nothing. And therefore, Ownership is Not All-Or-Nothing. Some portion of your ownership can be given or traded away.

And some Portion of Your Ownership can be Taken away. (And we have thereby arrived at the broader Meaning of ‘Stealing’.)

If someone Takes Away some or all of your Control over your possession, against your will, they are Stealing from you.

Even if, rather than physically taking, they simply Prevent you from exercising Your Full Control over your possession through threats or force, they are still Stealing from you. Because, even if they are not physically taking your possession, they are Taking away your Ownership (control).

Now, here’s a Critical Question.

Do you believe your life belongs to you? If you really Own Your Life, you must fully Control Your Life.

Anyone who Prevents you from exercising full Control over your own life is Taking Your Life.

At a minimum, they are Stealing your Freedom. In the extreme, this can rise to the level of Slavery or Murder.

OK, now that we have fleshed out the broader meaning of To Steal, we can begin to explore how Thou Shalt Not Steal can be applied to political questions.

If the Primary Guiding Principle shaping society was Thou Shalt Not Steal, what kind of government, legal, and social systems would such a Veresapiens society have?

The answer to that question goes back to our earlier discussion of Ownership. If you ‘own’ something, it means that you have total Control over it. If someone Takes away some or all of your Control, then, because they are Taking away your Ownership, they are Stealing from you.

That means that if someone Takes any Control Over Your Life, they are Taking Ownership of Your Life. Taking ownership without permission is Stealing.

Veresapiens, then, would Not Make Rules, or laws, to Control Others’ behavior. That would be Stealing.

Individual Veresapiens would make Rules as to the acceptable use of Their Own Property and the acceptable behavior of visitors to their property. And Veresapiens may rightfully choose to Defend Their Property from unacceptable aggression by others. Such ‘individual property rules’ do not take away any others’ full ownership of their own lives and property.

If a society based on Thou Shalt Not Steal would Make No Laws to Control, Mandate, or Prohibit anyone’s actions, then it would have No Need For a Government. In fact, any imposed form of government, including Democracy, would be Incompatible with a Thou Shalt Not Steal-based society.

Thus, for a whole society to live by Thou Shalt Not Steal as a guiding principle, a totally Voluntaryist social structure is required – one with No Government at all.

You may already live much of your life in a Truly Human, Thou Shalt Not Steal, Veresapiens mode. Think about the ‘Anarchy’ that already exists between You and your Friends and close Neighbors. Do you refrain from stealing from them because of the laws of the government? Do you make up rules that all of them must follow or be punished? Do all of your disagreements get resolved by courts and judges?

If not, you’re already creating your own personal Truly Human Society!

Many truly wise philosophers and authors have written about how an entire Society Without a Government might function, so rather than re-create that content here, let me just recommend a good, easy-to-read introduction, available as a free download at this link:

The Market for Liberty

Of course the most common criticism leveled against this kind of ‘Society Without a Government’ thought experiment is that it assumes the existence of a society somehow magically free of an existing central government.

I have to agree that this is an unlikely scenario for the foreseeable future. And When Governments do Fall, whether by revolution or by conquest, they are, unfortunately, Replaced By new Governments. There is never a shortage of ‘wannabe rulers’ just waiting for their big opportunity.

But, if you think about it, even if there was, magically, a land with No Government, and people had Total Freedom to organize new social structures, they would most likely not end up being one single homogeneous society. Different groups of People would try out Different Approaches, many of which might take hold and thrive. There would also, no doubt, be violent organized gangs of criminals.

Those who wanted to organize around the concept of Thou Shalt Not Steal could do so, but they would still have to Coexist among people with different ideas, values, and social structures, just as your own personal Truly Human Society does today. They would also have to deal with individuals and organized groups intent on stealing their property or their freedom, just as your own personal Truly Human Society does today.

So, we have the same kind of Opportunity Now to organize a Truly Human Society as we would have in the mythical ungoverned land.

Now, at this point, you may still be wondering how the Veresapiens Philosophy Answers current Political Questions in the real world.

So let’s see how our philosophy scales up. As an example, let’s consider this politically hot question:

“What should the Government do about the Problem of Illegal Aliens?”

First let’s Question the Question.

Why are ‘illegal aliens’ a ‘problem’ to be solved?

A common answer would be: “They don’t pay taxes, and yet are served by government programs (paid for by American citizens).”

That answer hints at a new way to look at almost all ‘political’ questions. The answer to why illegal aliens are a problem is centered around Government Programs (taxes and services).

In other words, we need to solve this problem (illegal aliens) because of the impact it has on Government ‘Solutions’ to Previous ‘Problems’ (the collection of taxes and the provision of services).

What happens if we consider the problem of illegal aliens, Setting Government Aside?

OK, setting government aside, what is an illegal alien? Borders are Imaginary Lines drawn by governments to declare their Control over people and places. So, without government borders, there are no aliens, legal, illegal or otherwise. You Just have People. No problem there.

What about taxes and services? Setting government aside, people in Communities would work to Create Products to sell or trade, Provide Services to sell or trade, and would Provide goods or services as Charity for people in need. Taking from some people to give to other people is a government thing.

So, setting government aside, the ‘illegal alien’ problem simply starts to fade away.

You can follow this thought pattern on just about any Political Issue. Instead of answering the political question, as asked, try considering the question itself. And then, setting aside the political roots of the question, Consider the Issue in Human Terms. This approach will lead you to Truly Human Answers.

  • What is the Political Question?
  • What are the Left vs Right conventional Political Answers?
  • How do the conventional Political Answers relate to Government Laws, Activities, or Programs.
  • What Different Answers would arise from taking a Truly Human Approach to the issue?

And since we do not, at this time, live in a society that is Free of existing Government, the next question a Veresapiens will ask is…

  • To what extent Can You Implement a Truly Human Solution in a Government Dominated Society?

This last point is important to consider, since Truly Human Solutions, implemented fully, may well be Illegal in today’s society. (Think about the impact of Ignoring Government immigration regulations).

Political Discourse, framed in terms of Government Programs, Confuses the distinctions between Right and Wrong.

As you mentally break out of that political frame, you can simply re-frame the original question in terms of basic Morality. And the most basic Human morality is Thou Shalt Not Steal.

Because Thou Shalt Not Steal, when consistently applied, requires that all Human interactions be voluntary, it provides a simple way to determine what the Truly Human approach would be in any situation.

The Veresapiens philosophy helps you distinguish Right and Wrong and helps you find Moral approaches to Social Issues.

The Veresapiens philosophy seldom mandates one particular solution. There will almost always be a range of consistently moral approaches available to a Veresapiens.

All we need to do is ensure that our chosen approach Refrains from Taking property or freedom from others.

This is something we can do Now.

And today, by our example, we help others to also become Truly Human.

A Voluntaryist View of ‘Rights’

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Veresapiens LogoThat famous quote sounds good, but in real world conversations, I have found few things that are less self-evident than ‘self-evident truths’ about Rights.

The quote, itself, immediately raises questions. Do we have only God-Given Rights? Are there Human Rights, Moral Rights, Natural Rights, Legal Rights? Would those be different things, or the same things coming from different sources?

And any detailed discussion of Rights typically gets less self-evident from there.

So, let’s see if I can offer you a simple view of Rights using the lens of Voluntaryism.

It might be useful to begin with Robinson Crusoe, alone on the island, again.

When Crusoe is the only person on the island, does it matter if he has any Rights? Would it make any practical difference if he has a Right to Liberty or not? It is only when Friday shows up on the island that the issue of Rights takes on any meaning.

This tells us that Rights have something to do with relationships.

Here’s why that is:

Rights, in effect, impose duties on others, in the form of either restrictions on their actions or claims on their actions.

If Crusoe has a Right to some type of freedom, that means that Friday has a duty to not interfere with Crusoe’s exercise of that freedom. Thus, Crusoe’s Right places restrictions on Friday’s actions.

If Crusoe has a Right to any services from Friday, that means that Friday has a duty to perform actions necessary to fulfill Crusoe’s Right. Thus, Crusoe’s Right places claims on Friday’s actions.

So, wherever you believe your Rights come from, God, Nature, a Constitution, etc., the purpose of a Right is to reduce the freedom of action of others in some way.

In the original story, Crusoe rescued Friday from cannibals. Let’s suppose for a moment that the rescue had failed miserably. Not only was Friday not saved, but imagine Crusoe found himself in a large pot hanging over a cooking fire.

At this point does a loud declaration from Crusoe that he has a God-Given, Human, Moral, Natural, and Legal Right to Life and Liberty do him any good? The cannibals would likely just give him a funny look and go back to making side dishes.

This tells us that Rights have something to do with voluntary agreement.

If I’m interacting with people who don’t accept that I have a Right, then for all practical purposes I don’t have a Right (in terms of my relationship with those people).

But what about Force?

Let’s go back to the original storyline in which Crusoe successfully rescues Friday. But now let’s change the story so that Crusoe, who has muskets and pistols, decides he has the Right to use Friday as a slave.

Because Crusoe can force Friday to be his slave, does that mean that Crusoe has a Right to keep Friday as an unwilling slave? Of course not.

So let’s summarize what have we learned so far about Rights:

  • Rights don’t relate to individuals, they relate to relationships between individuals.
  • Your Rights limit or reduce the freedom of action of others.
  • To have any practical meaning, Rights must be consensual.
  • The ability to force restrictions or claims on the actions of others does not constitute a Right.

What does all of this mean to a Voluntaryist?

A Voluntaryist believes that all interactions between people should be voluntary. By definition, this philosophy includes such ethical codes as Thou Shalt Not Steal (to steal is to take something against the will of the owner) and the Non-Aggression Principle (to not initiate the use force or threats against a person or their property).

So let’s see how the attributes we have discovered about Rights fit in (or not) with the philosophy of Voluntaryism.

As a Voluntaryist, by definition I grant everyone else the Right to not be aggressed against by me. When I do that, I impose a duty on myself, limiting my freedom of action.

That’s simple enough. But here’s where it gets a little trickier:

If my Rights require restrictions or claims on the actions of others, and I’m a Voluntaryist, then I can’t make a blanket claim of having any Rights. That would be imposing a duty on others, restricting their actions without their agreement. Of course we’ve already learned that Rights, to have any practical value, need consent anyway.

I can use Force to defend myself against aggression, but we’ve also learned that using Force to restrict or enforce actions still doesn’t constitute a Right.

So, bottom line, as a Voluntaryist, I can grant the Right to not be aggressed against, but I cannot demand the Right to not be aggressed against.

Fortunately, most other people, in terms of their daily activities, do consensually grant me the Right to not be aggressed against. The exceptions are a small number of criminals and a somewhat larger number of people involved in government.

Borderline Insanity

Veresapiens LogoWhen you control the questions, you don’t really have to worry about the answers.

So let’s begin to question the questions.

For instance, consider this politically hot question:

“What should the government do about the problem of illegal aliens?”

No, don’t answer. First let’s just question the question.

Why are ‘illegal aliens’ a ‘problem’ to be solved?

A common answer would be: “They don’t pay taxes, and yet are served by government programs (paid for by American citizens).”

That answer hints at a new way to look at almost all ‘political’ questions. The answer to why illegal aliens are a problem is centered around government programs (taxes and services).

In other words, we need to solve this problem (illegal aliens) because of the impact it has on government solutions to previous ‘problems’ (the collection of taxes and the provision of services).

What happens if we consider the problem of illegal aliens, setting government aside?

OK, setting government aside, what is an illegal alien? Borders are imaginary lines drawn by governments to declare their control over people and places. So, without government borders, there are no aliens, legal, illegal or otherwise. You just have people. No problem.

Well, what about taxes and services? OK, setting government aside, people in communities would work to create products to sell or trade, provide services to sell or trade, and would provide goods or services as charity for people in need. Taking from some people to give to other people is a government thing.

So, setting government aside, the ‘illegal alien’ problem simply starts to fade away.

You can follow this thought pattern on just about any political issue. Instead of answering the political question, as asked, try considering why the problem exists in the first place. It will lead you to different answers.

Receiving Government Payments – A Voluntaryist Dilemma

Veresapiens LogoAs a Veresapiens and voluntaryist, I consider government to be unHuman. A government is, by definition, based on theft and coercion. I want to shun government in every way possible, just as I would any other criminal organization.

But, the government keeps taking my money, and I want it back.

For example, I’ve had Social Security taxes ‘deducted’ from my paychecks for over 40 years, now.

So, here’s my dilemma…

If I think Social Security is a typically immoral government program, should I participate in it anyway when I become eligible to receive payments, especially after having been forced to make payments into the program for all those years?

Walter Block has written that since all government funds are essentially stolen loot, “…it is a positive virtue to relieve the government of its ill-gotten gains“. In fact, he writes, “…the more money you take from the coffers of the state the better libertarian you are“.

Sounds good. But here’s the rub…

The money the government has taken from me in Social Security (and other) taxes over the years is long gone. That money was spent long, long ago. The government no longer has my stolen property.

So, when I ask for the Social Security money that the government ‘owes’ me, where will that money come from? Well, the government, having no money of its own, will simply go out and steal money from my neighbors and give it to me.

How would I feel, as a Veresapiens and voluntaryist, about me using the force of government to take other people’s money?

I might try to make myself feel better by saying “The government is going to collect the tax money, anyway, and I might as well get my fair share”. But it’s still stolen money. Another person’s money.

And, as the US population ages, Social Security taxes will no longer cover Social Security payments. Beyond payroll taxes on current workers, the government will need to both borrow money, to be repaid by future taxpayers, and print money, a hidden tax on everyone.

I don’t think I’m really punishing the government when I “relieve it of its ill-gotten gains”. If anything, I’m doing it an invaluable service.

The government loves to dole out the cash. The government wants to give money to everyone. When everyone’s getting government money, no one wants to get rid of government, they just want to fight over who gets how much.

As Bastiat said in his essay Government,

“The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.”

When you take money from the government, you serve to perpetuate government.

If you want to end government, I believe the best approach is that suggested by Boetie in The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude:

“For if tyranny really rests on mass consent, then the obvious means for its overthrow is simply by mass withdrawal of that consent.”

If more people declined, whenever possible, to receive stolen goods (tax money) from the government, it would go a long way toward delegitimizing those government programs and the government.

So, here is how I think I should approach my dilemma:

  • Do whatever I can to minimize (legally) the amount of money that the government takes from me in taxes.
  • Accept that any money that is taken from me by the government is unrecoverable without causing harm to others (theft of their money).
  • And therefore decline, whenever I can, to take any ‘entitlements’ payments (freshly stolen goods) from the government.

I think perhaps those who take the least money from the coffers of the state are good libertarians, too.

Could There Be A Truly Human Society?

Veresapiens LogoTo live by the simple principle “Thou Shalt Not Steal” is what allows an individual Man to become truly wise, truly Human, a Veresapiens.

What, then, would a truly Human, Veresapiens society look like?

If the guiding principle shaping the society was TSNS, “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, what kind of government, legal, and social systems would the society have?

Before we begin to answer that question, we need to review one important aspect of TSNS.  If you ‘own’ something, it means that you have total control over it. If someone takes away some or all of your control, then because they are taking away your ownership, they are stealing from you.

That means that if someone takes any control over your life, they are taking ownership of your life. Taking ownership without permission is stealing.

A Veresapiens, then, would not make rules, or laws, to control others’ behavior. That would be stealing.

Veresapiens would make rules as to the acceptable use of their own property and the acceptable behavior of visitors on their property. And Veresapiens may defend their property from unacceptable aggression by others. None of those things would take away others’ full ownership of their own lives and property.

If a society based on TSNS would make no laws to control, mandate, or prohibit anyone’s actions, then it would have no need for a government. In fact, any form of government, including democracy, would be incompatible with a TSNS-based society.

For a whole society to live by “Thou Shalt Not Steal” as a guiding principle requires a totally voluntaryist social structure – one with no government at all.

Is it possible to have a society with no government?

UPDATE: The answer to that question starts here.

In a Free Society, the Only Way to Create Wealth is by Helping Others

Veresapiens LogoCreating personal wealth is often characterized as selfish, or even sinful. In fact in the Bible, two separate books of the New Testament contain the quote…

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Yet, in a free market, the person who makes the greatest fortune is the one who enriches the most lives in the community. When markets are free, meaning all exchanges are voluntary, each person offering products or services has to compete with all other sellers to provide the most value. In other words, the sellers are in competition to see who can most enrich the lives of the most people.

Specialization and Trade Create Wealth

Veresapiens LogoIt is uniquely Human to “Trade, not Take”.

Of all of the life forms on this planet, only Man has the ability to decide, consciously, to trade for his wants and needs rather than taking what he can from others.

Obviously not everyone chooses that path. But, the path exists.

The next question is “Is there a real-world benefit to trading, or is it solely a morality issue?”.

As it turns out, the beauty of trading is that beyond providing the key to being truly Human, trading also creates additional prosperity for the whole community.

Some simple (I promise) numbers will illustrate this point.

Imagine a primitive community that is just beginning to add farming to its food gathering efforts. Assume that they have just figured out how to use a harness to have a cow or ox help plow a field.

The plow and harness mechanism is simple enough that the two village farmers are able to make both the plow and harness themselves.

Now, you might think that if one farmer was better at plow-making and one farmer was better at harness-making, then they would benefit from specializing in making one or the other and trading with each other. And that would indeed be true.

But what if one of the farmers was actually better than the other at both plow-making and harness-making? Would it make sense to trade then? Would it make sense for one farmer but not the other? (Remember, a trade only happens when both parties feel like they are gaining from the trade.)

In fact, even if one farmer is better than the other farmer at both plow-making and harness-making, both farmers will be better off if they still trade.

Sounds a little iffy? That’s why I promised you numbers.

Let’s assume it takes farmer Ed 3 hours to make a plow and 4 hours to make a harness. That’s a total of 7 hours for the whole apparatus.

And let’s assume that it takes farmer Jake 6 hours to make a plow and 5 hours to make a harness (a total of 11 hours to make one complete set).

How can farmer Ed benefit from a trade, when he can build all of the parts so much faster than farmer Jake can?

The key is for farmer Ed to focus on the part with the biggest time advantage. He can make a plow 3 hours faster than farmer Jake, but can make a harness only 1 hour faster.

It takes Farmer Ed 7 hours to make a whole plow and harness set, but he can make two plows in just 6 hours.

Farmer Jake takes 11 hours to make a whole set, but he can make two harnesses in just 10 hours.

So by trading, farmer Ed gets a plow and harness for 6 hours of work instead of 7, and farmer Jake gets his plow and harness for 10 hours of work instead of 11.

And, as a whole, the farming community only had to spend 16 hours of labor to get two plow and harness sets instead of 18 hours, making 2 extra hours available for other valuable activities.

Man can decide to trade, and the trade not only benefits each of the participants (or they wouldn’t participate), but trade also enables and rewards specialization, which makes the whole community more efficient, raising its standard of living.