A lot of people get so deep into the philosophy of voluntaryism/anarchism, that they forget how alien many of these concepts and discussions may sound on first hearing to an "outsider," coming from a background accepting violent governance as the "sad but true" status quo. They may understandably assume this is just another weird "ism" or political movement.
The truth is that Voluntaryism is simply the recognition that you own your life, and everyone else is the master of theirs as well. This is a nature-conferred reality. No less real than the sun, the moon, and gravity. If peace is the end goal, then there is an objectively most efficacious way to get there. And it doesn't involve granting certain individuals magical "rights to rule" others.
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
My video is at DLive
Thank you so much sir @kafkanarchy84 for Reviewing Basic Voluntaryist Ideas for Beginners like me. watching now you 9 min video now.
This is great! An important post to make as well. Many people don't understand the difference between voluntarism and other ideologies. Voluntarism is more of a philosophy than anything else, as it provides(and doesnt enforce) a set of rules that an individual may live by. Upvoted...
I think voluntaryists and anarchists fail to understand why societies and governments exist. I support fighting for change but there are reasons to have leaders, we just need better ones who are not corrupt and do the right thing.
I am not against leaders if they are chosen freely and consensually by each individual under their leadership. I am against ruling others by violent force and non-consent.
I think all human interaction should be consensual. Don’t you?
That will never happen.
No. Perhaps 99% should be maybe even 99.99 percent but it's not consensual when murderers, rapists and thugs get arrested.
Yes we do need more freedom and we should work to get it but we should acknowledge the realities of our societies and work to improve them.
It'll never happen? Asking for people to be equal under the law is too much to ask for? The difference between a ruler and a leader is the ruler is not equal under the law to others. Them and their agents are protected and are provided special protections.
That's common sense to ask that everyone be equal under the law, and the law should be simple and based off damage done to people or their property. You'd also be held accountable for breaking your word (contract law). This shit isn't complicated. It also doesn't require rulers.
Saying “that will never happen” is not an answer to the question.
Sure, there will always be problems, but governance today (statism) is based on the belief that human interaction doesn’t need to be consensual to be ethical.
Do you agree, or disagree?
I think it is ethical to make murder illegal and use economies of scale. A lot of what government does is ethical and a lot of it is unethical.
Government (all modern government) is funded via extortion (theft) and thus cannot be described as ethical.
Yeah good talking point. It does take theft to jail a murderer. We could eliminate our democracy and eliminate government but we would probably need to form a new one. I'm with you in theory and we need to dramatically reduce the size of government but the government is similar to a union. I think after voluntaryists figure out a plan to eliminate murder and build roads and provide trash collection I think then we can start talking about ethics. We do need to reduce government and reduce taxation though. We should be able to fund the Federal government with tariffs and no income tax and I don't think there should be state income taxes either.
Yeah, uhm, thanks for making this easy.
Leaders are not protected by double standards or special protections. The entire court system would not be on their side and biased. They wouldn't have free legal defense. Their actions would have the same consequences as everyone else. Oh, most importantly, they would be equal under the law.
Pfft
Come on!
My brain is on slow motion today. When you said "self-owners" I understood "cell phoners". Face palm lol
When we realise we are free and authority on ourselves, then we begin to empower ourselves. It can start with simple tasks, like DIYs, or trimming your own hair, gardening, doing something where you learn a skill, master it for yourself, trust yourself, but don't rely on someone else who might or might not do what you need, how you need it. That alters your energy and you begin to assert your authority on yourself in front of others and don't let others tell you what to do, move out from being a people-pleaser, and speak out for your rights and voice your thoughts. You research and understand morality and Natural Law, and we understand that whatever we do must not harm others, and no one has the right to tell us how to live our lives, what to think, what to do, or how to do it. We have the final say, just like an Exec has the final say on a project. We are in charge of each our own lives.
Often we only trust people with degrees said that they are an authority and we don'T research things ourselves (medicine, law, education, etc) and we believe what they claim is best for us. Some of these people can be trusted, but we must research everything ourselves and learn to decide for ourselves whether we do what they say we should or what we know we should. Become your own expert, master your body, master your self, and then no one will be able to persuade you. You will always be able to make decisions that are best for you, regardless whether its to trust an expert or trust your gut.
Lol! “Cell Phoners.”
This actually happened to me once when I was working at Dairy Queen as a teenager. I was looking at the menu while mopping the floor at the end of my shift, and it said “Cheeseburger Lovers” (“Special”, or some final word like that). I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what makes a lover a Cheeseburger lover as opposed to a regular lover. I swear I was not on drugs... :)
Amen!
haha That's hilarious! I believe you about not being on drugs. Some of the most weird and silly or derp moments in my life were stone cold sober.
But... but...we need rulers, protected by double standards and not equal under the law, to keep the peace! har har
We should all be equal under the law?! Why, that's MADNESS!!! Who would ever think of such a crazy idea? You're clearly out of your mind, sir.
Those people need to be above the law, or else our liberties would all be lost.
/sarc
They are not under a complete double standard. Laws do apply to them so your point is not valid. Yes they do get away with some corruption which obviously needs to change but so do some citizens.
LOL Give me a break. Agents of the state are protected by massive double standards and special protections. I'm not even going to bother giving you examples. If you're that blind, you're hopeless. Hell, in the county North of me, the DA, all the cops, and the judges put an innocent man in prison for a murder he did not commit. They all knew he was innocent too. No double standards? Pfft.
If I shoot someone, do I get a free attorney? Is the county attorney on my side? Is the judge going to be on my side? Do I get a slap on the wrist? No, no, no... no... .no....
If you think police are the main problem in America than I guess I can understand where you are coming from. I would disagree with your assessment.
Does abuse exist? Yes. Our government is too big which causes a lot of abuse. I'd be pretty scared to go cold turkey anarchist though when you have ignorant sheeple that actually want more government or at least stay home on election day even when more taxation is on the ballot.
More taxation is always on the ballot, and the system is intrinsically murderous. To suggest that those that don’t participate in a murder system’s protocol are somehow a detriment to civilized society is patently absurd.
I think it's absurd to only pledge to only participate in voluntaryism which will likely never happen. Our current system could eventually collapse under the weight of too much socialism but I doubt the anarchy it brings will be very pretty especially while it lasts.
War is a racket but in the USA about 99% of murders are not done by the government. Voluntaryists could probably do more to stop those now but it's pretty much only the government doing anything.
"The anarchy it brings" tells me our definitions of the word are no where near the same. Anarchy is all around us. It is the norm. Go to any crowded place. In that place the vast majority of people will be peaceful and interacting voluntarily. Laws don't make them do those things. They do them because it is the natural way humans interact. The rare exception? They get heavily punished for being a predator. No government is needed to have those things happen either.
Sorry, @kafkanarchy84! I can't seem to get DLive to work for me. Last week it as Dtube that didn't work. I could get frustrated, but I have too many other things to be frustrated by...I believe that I was an anarchist long before the word became popularised. Yes, I am a dinosaur.
I was born into that kind of a background I was a rebellious so and so, so we moved the family. Now we find ourselves in the midst of what will be a revolution. We don't want any part of as both sides fit the violent government shoe. I live in Nicaragua. You won't find much news about it due to government enforced media black outs. If you want to read about it, please feel free to see the articles on my blog.
Thank you for the heads up, @cecicastor. I will definitely check that out.
Yes, that’s typically how revolutions are, isn’t it. Stay safe out there, and thanks for commenting. I’ll look into your blog to learn more.
Here in Taiwan, many people ignore public problems, but I believe in taking immediate action wherever possible.
My wife once slipped on an oil slick left by a parked scooter. After making sure she was OK, I tried to sop up some oil with paper in my pocket. When that didn't work, I left a note warning passersby to watch out for the oil.
My wife was very upset: "Why do you worry so much about what might happen to other people?"
I told her that if I had left the scene without taking action of some sort to protect other passersby, I would feel very guilty. We can't wait for the government to take care of everything.
One way voluntarism could come into existence is through free private cities. People who want to own themselves would eventually negotiate themselves charter cities from governments and with everyone seeing their standards of living skyrocket it would be replicated all over the world. Eventually the world would be filled with more and more freedom as the charter cities get more and more sovereignty and suddenly you got an anarcho capitalist world.
I like the idea, but existing nation states have to agree to leave them alone. That's the greatest challenge. There are modern day examples of such autonomous areas though, so it is a good idea to pursue for those of us who refuse to be ruled.
Very great tips for beginners
Well posted, you are a wonderful person and I wish you every success
@kafkarnachy84, yes everyone has the right to live and let live, but must magical powers be the criterion to rule others?
absolutely no
true masters and leaders commands peace and leadership even without the use of magical powers because they really understand the secret of true leadership
As long as leadership is consensual it is legitimate. If it is forced, however, as all government leadership is today (based on violence), it is immoral. That is what I mean there bro.