Tuesday, May 31, 2016

My struggle with Rightful Liberty

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No, it isn't always easy. Sometimes it is a bit of a struggle.

Sometimes I want to punish people. Sometimes I get mad and want to strike out. Sometimes I want to give up. Sometimes I feel the pull of my personal opinions and morals trying to convince me that violating someone else would be OK "just this one time".

When people around me do things I disagree with, things I think might reflect poorly on me, I feel the desire to force them to do what I think is right- but I realize that would be just as wrong as what they are doing. Perhaps even more wrong. Because I know better and they, apparently, don't.

In some ways liberty is so easy. The rules are simple and few: don't initiate force and don't violate the private property of anyone. A child can do it- and most already know the rules.

It takes years of indoctrination to make people forget the rules or believe they don't apply in certain cases. Overcoming that indoctrination, once it has taken hold, it not easy. That may be where all the difficulty lies.

Peer pressure is a powerful force. "Everyone else does it" (justifies aggression and property violation). It would be so simple to fall in line and do the same. No one would blink an eye or judge.

But I know it wouldn't be right. Not for me. For me it is harder to live with myself if I'm doing what I know isn't right than it is living without the approval of statists around me.

However, the Zero Aggression Principle isn't like a law. It doesn't give me excuses to beat you; it is a promise I make to you, telling you what to expect of me. Telling you that if I choose to violate my promise, I know you are justified defending yourself from me.

If you want "easy", maybe life isn't for you after all.
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