Natural rights libertarianism
Libertarianism is a relatively modern name for an older bunch of ideas manifesting themselves in the American Revolution, based, to at least some extent, on the ideas of John Locke, along with some other major thinkers of his time and before.
I will explain, at least in this post, natural rights libertarianism, which is based off of some of the ideas of John Locke and for the most part was realized in early eighteenth century America.
The basic assumption that I must begin this explanation with is:
Human being have the right to live.
Humans survive, not through instinctual behavior, but through the use of reason to gain food or shelter. Humans must use reason to survive. Because we have the right to live, as human beings, we therefore have the right to reason.
Because we have the right to live - that is, to produce things necessary for survival, the man that creates, makes, or thinks of something has the sole right to keep, use, destroy, or do whatever he wishes with that which he has produced with his own mind or body. The implications of this are interesting.
The goods that we come to 'own' through the use of our own reason, minds, and body, are ours to keep. Any attempt to take the property of another individual is a violation of the human right to live, since they exercised their ability to reason - man's sole means of survival - to gain possession of the property. Any individual with a property right over some good has the right to trade it or sell it, but not to violate the right of any other person's right to their own property. Keep in mind that exchange between two individuals is ALWAYS voluntary and therefore completely in accordance with man's right to live. Obviously, included in a man's property, is his own body, since it is his own body, guided by reason, which performs the actions that allow him to survive.
From this line of reasoning, we conclude that only voluntary exchanges between individuals do not violate the rights of human beings. If someone steals something from another person, it is theft. If someone forces another person to give up a piece of their property through force, then it is theft. Taxation then, is theft. The government, through the use of coercion, takes what you earned honestly through the use of your mind and your body. This is theft and a violation of the basic human right to live.
Since human beings have a right to their own bodies and to do what they wish with their own time, conscription is slavery and it violates the basic human right to life, to reason, and to property.
In accordance with humans right's to life, aggressive war is murder. Any death on any side of a conflict is the responsibility of the aggressor. If a country goes to war with another country for any reason except self defense, then the heads of state that started the aggressive war are murderers and should be held accountable for their actions just as any other criminal. If the war was put to a democratic vote and over half the people in a country voted to start an aggressive war with another nation, then anyone that perished in the conflict on either side is a victim of murder. Anyone that voted 'yes' for the war should be held accountable for the crime of murder.
Since we have the right to our own body and property, anyone aggressing upon our body or property has violated our right and self defense is completely justified.
Natural-rights libertarianism is the only truly just system in accordance with man's basic right to life.
Acknowledgements: Many of these ideas are based on Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, by Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged, by the same author. Murray Rothbard’s For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto outlines them in more detail. I was probably influenced by David Friedman’s The Machinery of Freedom: A Guide to Radical Capitalism as well.
posted by Joseph Onorati @ 6:28 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I think what is important to note is that Government in and of itself is not a great evil that should inspire awe and fear in the hearts of its citizens. It is not an organism with the natural reactions to harm the constituents who hide beneath the banner of the U.S. or any other nation-state one could name. The problem does not lie within the Government organization because the "being" of a Government, as Joseph pointed out, cannot exist. The fundamental flaw in the Government of the U.S. is its extraordinary size. Simply put, the U.S. Government has gotten far bigger than is "needed" or desired. Taxation is a reality that must always come. In one form or another, a body of Government will always extract a sum of taxes in order for that body to survive. (And yes I know I'm speaking of the Government as if it acts of its own accord here. It is a useful analogy only, not an economic belief.) Perhaps I, too, have little faith in the positive nature of humanity, but it is at least in my opinion that the Government enlarges due to the individuals who seek more money and power within the system. This enlargement for personal gain is not what Government was intended to do. If a system is established to help the people, then it should help the population best served. It is in the nature of Government to expand because human nature is self-interested. One will turn events for a better outcome for his department when, in reality, the populace would be best served by money spent elsewhere. As long as such a state continues, taxation becomes a theft. It is a theft because the funds are inappropriated diverted from whatever "common cause" it could best have been used. The idea of taxation is that the money an individual pays to a Government will be an investment to better the population. If said money is given to the state, and it is used in a way that betters only a portion of the populace, then the money was received under false pretenses: thus, it was stolen. The only actions the government can then take to ensure that the entirety of the population is better served by its funding, is to uphold contracts and provide a military defenve. Notice I said defence, and not military presence. The defence of our nation and not nations around the world are what is important to uphold. Once the "Government" has stepped beyond our borders, free-riders from other nations begin to use our taxation money to defend themselves, thereby stealing funding from the population of the U.S. Once the organization of the government grows beyond the proportions of serving only the populace here, it has overstepped its contract with the American people.
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