Saturday, February 10, 2024

No one has permission to violate rights

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 7, 2024)




You are never obligated to cooperate with anyone trying to violate your rights. Never, for any reason.

It will be dangerous to refuse to help them violate you, but in such circumstances, cooperation is just as dangerous. Once someone has decided to harm you, you're not going to escape without a scratch. Especially when they claim to have the imaginary, magical quality they call "authority".

They'll try to make you sorry you didn't help them hurt you. They'll do their best to punish you. This only shows them to be the bad guys. A defining feature of bad guys-- criminals-- is their willingness to violate the rights-- the life, liberty, or property-- of others.

What are your rights? The Bill of Rights is a start, but not the whole picture. The Ninth Amendment hints at this by stating the other amendments are not a comprehensive list of the rights placed beyond the authority of government. "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Government hates, studiously ignores, and violates this law with nearly everything it does.

You have a right to do everything-- absolutely anything-- which doesn't violate someone else's equal and identical rights, regardless of the opinion of the regional political powers.

The flip side of this is the acknowledgment that no one can have a right to violate your rights. It doesn't work that way. This means you aren't obligated to cooperate with anyone who is trying to violate your rights or to prevent you from doing things you have a natural human right to do.

I won't deny this is dangerous knowledge to have and act upon.

Once you know this, you'll see anyone who is trying to violate you in the same light: as a criminal, nothing more. It doesn't mean you'll always prevail-- sometimes the criminals have the drop on you. Their gang may outnumber you. They may have given themselves permission to do what they do, and they may even claim you and your neighbors gave them this permission.

Funny thing, though: there is no hocus-pocus by which you can give someone permission to do things on your behalf which you-- as an individual-- have no right to do on your own. The myths saying otherwise are convenient for power-hungry bad guys, but lack any basis in reality or ethics. Now you know.
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I couldn't do this without your support.

Newcomers bring change


There are things I don't like, but that I know I have no right to use force to prevent. A huge influx of migrants is one of those things.

This might be surprising considering I spend so much effort defending the right of people to go where they want, as long as they aren't violating anyone's property. And because I don't believe in government "borders". But personally, I'm generally against mass migration (and the conditions that cause it).

It's not even a matter of where those migrants originate.

I saw the damage done to Colorado by the influx of people from California. I don't think I could handle living in the place I love the most, not anymore, with the changes the newcomers brought. 

I think Texas faces the same risk.

The same could happen to any place that gets a large number of new people who don't value the things the current residents value. That's not necessarily a bad thing, depending on the current residents' attitude toward archation

Newcomers who love and understand liberty, even if the long-time residents don't, are a good thing for any population. 

If, though, the newcomers bring an enthusiasm for archation-- either through crime or legislation-- then they are a net negative. The place would be better off without them.

The character of the newcomers matters; government's opinion of them doesn't.

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Liberty is the greater good!
If you want to support what I do, you will. If not, you won't.
Thank you.

Also this or this