The Covenant of Unanimous Consent

The Covenant of Unanimous Consent

J Nick Puglia -the Western Oregon Libertarian Examiner - recently asked if I have done an article on The Covenant of Unanimous Consent, after I had mentioned it in a previous column. I have not, and it is past time.

The founders of America were human. I think they were more normal than many of their admirers would admit. They were each a mix of good and bad, with each man leaning a little more to one side or the other. The same as we all do.

The problem was that the "good" allowed the "bad" to mix a little poison into the recipe for the Constitution. As Ayn Rand said "In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.” So, the little bit of evil that was incorporated into the document doomed the whole document to failure and poisoned the entire effort. Any document must avoid this if it is not to be destined for the same fate. No "poison" (coercion/theft/evil) can be added to the mix.

I have said before that the more people anything ("law", rule, government) is supposed to apply to, the less specific it must be. The lowest common denominator must be found. The Covenant of Unanimous Consent follows from the Zero Aggression Principle and is exactly as specific as it must be, but no more specific than it should be. It fills the bill as a very good "social contract".

For a more in-depth dissertation: "Why I think the Covenant is more important than the Constitution" by Dennis Lee Wilson