(My Clovis News Journal column for May 31, 2013)
Can you give me an actual living, breathing, Tyrannosaurus rex? No. Why not? Because you don't have one to give. You can't give away something you don't possess- especially if it doesn't exist.
So how can you pretend to give government employees the authority to do things on your behalf which you never had the authority to do on your own? Things such as to forbid guns in some circumstances, some methods of carry, or to certain people. Or to kick in doors to get drugs. Or to require licenses for driving or conducting business. Or to take a percentage of everyone's property.
The truth is, you can't give that authority because you never possessed it; no one did- it never even existed. In every case it's completely wrong to do those things since no one has the authority to violate the fundamental rights, under Natural Law, of their fellow humans. When someone chooses to do those things anyway they become an enemy to other individuals, and by extension, to society. Even to civilization.
Theft, aggression, and every other violation of individual sovereignty need to be seen as the destructive forces they are, and they need to be universally rejected, not delegated to some authority.
As one example of this truth, police don't have any "special authority"- or at least they were never intended to. Just as you hire someone to haul your trash to the landfill, even though you are perfectly capable of doing so yourself but would rather not be bothered with the mundane task, police were to be paid to do full-time what everyone had the authority to do anyway: stop theft and aggression.
If only society would return to this principle, and individuals would take responsibility for themselves again instead of leaning on the crutch, it would solve a lot of problems.
As it is, police are now believed to have special authority; authority that never existed and therefore can not be delegated to them by you or anyone. This imaginary "special authority" creates an "us vs. them" gulf that will only keep growing wider and more dangerous until it is stopped cold, and reversed.
Police are only one small facet of the problem. Any "law" that pretends to give any government employee more authority than any random person on the street is not a legitimate law. In fact, as their boss, you have more real authority than the job can ever confer upon them. Never let the uppity servants order the masters around, and never tolerate their violation of anyone's liberty.
That is within your rightful authority.
Can you give me an actual living, breathing, Tyrannosaurus rex? No. Why not? Because you don't have one to give. You can't give away something you don't possess- especially if it doesn't exist.
So how can you pretend to give government employees the authority to do things on your behalf which you never had the authority to do on your own? Things such as to forbid guns in some circumstances, some methods of carry, or to certain people. Or to kick in doors to get drugs. Or to require licenses for driving or conducting business. Or to take a percentage of everyone's property.
The truth is, you can't give that authority because you never possessed it; no one did- it never even existed. In every case it's completely wrong to do those things since no one has the authority to violate the fundamental rights, under Natural Law, of their fellow humans. When someone chooses to do those things anyway they become an enemy to other individuals, and by extension, to society. Even to civilization.
Theft, aggression, and every other violation of individual sovereignty need to be seen as the destructive forces they are, and they need to be universally rejected, not delegated to some authority.
As one example of this truth, police don't have any "special authority"- or at least they were never intended to. Just as you hire someone to haul your trash to the landfill, even though you are perfectly capable of doing so yourself but would rather not be bothered with the mundane task, police were to be paid to do full-time what everyone had the authority to do anyway: stop theft and aggression.
If only society would return to this principle, and individuals would take responsibility for themselves again instead of leaning on the crutch, it would solve a lot of problems.
As it is, police are now believed to have special authority; authority that never existed and therefore can not be delegated to them by you or anyone. This imaginary "special authority" creates an "us vs. them" gulf that will only keep growing wider and more dangerous until it is stopped cold, and reversed.
Police are only one small facet of the problem. Any "law" that pretends to give any government employee more authority than any random person on the street is not a legitimate law. In fact, as their boss, you have more real authority than the job can ever confer upon them. Never let the uppity servants order the masters around, and never tolerate their violation of anyone's liberty.
That is within your rightful authority.
.
