OK, let's see if Mr. Karl "Market-Ticker" Denninger can explain it. Better you hear it from him than a dumb truck driver.
Either you, and only you, have the right of dominion (ownership) over your person and nobody else does, or you do not.
This does not mean you cannot cede that authority for a period of time and on a voluntary basis to some other entity (e.g. your idea of what God is, to military service, etc) but it does mean that nobody else can compel you to do so.
The difficulty with first principles is that they're inviolate. One either believes in them or one does not. Once you adopt one you are then forced to square all your other political principles against this first one, and if you cannot fit what you wish to adopt into that first principle then you must modify or abandon whatever it was that you intended to do.
...Seriously, RTWT. Now, when I call myself a libertarian, you'll know exactly what I mean. And no, I don't wear a wookie suit.
Think about that for a minute.
On the one hand most people in this country claim to believe in a God that endowed us all with certain unalienable rights -- life, liberty, and the pursuit (ed. but not the guarantee!) of happiness.
But then, under the label of "Democrat" or "Republican" we vote for, support, and enable the enactment of laws that blaspheme what we claim to believe, in that we then intentionally violate those very same liberty interests we claim come from that God.
(At least, not as far as you know. ;) )
Change "your person" to "your person and your property" and I could sign onto Denninger's definition as an operative first principle.
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http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
Dude. De Facto. If you own yourself, you own anything created or gained by yourself through any ethical and moral means.
ReplyDeletePersonal property necessarily follows person.