The 4 Foundational Principles of Voluntaryism
If you want to reach a future of peace through liberty, you must understand the principles of Voluntaryism and apply them consistently.
Let people be free!
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Self-Ownership
Self-ownership is the cornerstone to Voluntaryist values. It is the axiom that states that each person is the highest authority over their own body, and that each person has the greatest claim over what happens with it.
While there are many thought processes by which this concept could be derived, a simple observation on the nature of human action makes it clear: the brain’s exertion of impulses on the body demonstrates that individuals control their bodies and direct its course by a biological default. People act accordingly from the sensations of this exertion, both in inclusion and exclusion.
If this axiom is accepted as to humans, it develops a solid and logical basis from which to describe the other properties of Voluntaryist thought.
The Non-Aggression Principle
The non-aggression principle is the idea that, stemming from self-ownership, individuals should not initiate physical harms against others and should only use force if necessary in self-defense.
As individuals have the highest claim to their body, no one has a right to use force to tell others what they can do or say with their body with self-ownership in mind.
If individuals respect the bodies of others, fewer conflicts will emerge.
Maximizing Individual Consent
The concept of maximizing individual consent is the notion that permission to the body or property of another is predicated on attaining consent of the individual. For example, this is the difference between an act of intercourse being categorized as sex or being categorized as rape.
With the norm of maximizing consent, principled Voluntaryists seek to enhance the accuracy of consent through specific observation, action, and words to further understanding. Looking to ensure that individuals are respected in their decisions to either join or to abstain from the activities of others is an encouraged social norm.
Generalized, collective consent is rejected as lacking individual conscious decision.
For example, government, which is the claim to the bodies and properties of others through a single or small group of mandatory, automatic rulers, is viewed as violative of consent to the extent that rule and control does not require individual assent.
The accuracy of consent’s manifestation is increased with proactive communication, market technology, and scientific discovery.
Minimizing the Initiation of Violence Against Others
Minimizing the initiation of violence against others is the idea that conflicts should be resolved as best as possible without increasing the damage and harm originally caused. For example, if a child tripped and stepped on your toe, it would be escalating violence to shoot the child in the head for this accident because it causes more damage with intent than the original action.
Minimizing the initiation of violence is a conscious effort. To avoid initiating violence against others and to look for opportunities to deescalate furthering physical harms where possible, Voluntaryists consider how they can ask permission and communicate their wants and needs, and seek to better resolve disputes through reason rather than through physical force.
As you have heard now, the core principles of Voluntaryism revolve around the idea of consent, it’s manifestation and acceptance. Antithetical to individual consent, is the nature of government.
Government does not seek out individual consent. They claim to own the bodies and property of others by default, with automatic, mandatory rulers.
Government seeks to minimize individual consent in favor of collectivism and maximize the initiations of violence by justifying theft by unilateral decree.
If you want to instill a sense of Voluntaryist values in your life, you must start with love and empathy, as that is where Voluntaryism springs from.
If you love yourself, and you can empathize with others in how they would want to be treated as you do yourself, you can see how to start reciprocating Voluntaryist ethics.
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In a lifetime of coming across some pretty weird examples (and mind-blowing analogies), the following is hard to beat, I find:
Also, aren't the second and fourth principles pretty much the same the thing making one of them redundant?
Interesting otherwise, and the way I've always tried to lead my life. I guess I'm a voluntaryist and I didn't even know it! I've just mostly tried being a fairly decent human being, most of the time. I get by well enough, generally.
:)
The 4th stems from the 2nd, and the 3rd stems from the 1st. The 3rd and 4th principles are expansions on the first two, to emphasize the mindset that Voluntaryists should have when trying to resolve conflicts.
That's great this resonated with you! As @finnian pointed out, most people accept the principles but just aren't conscious as to their articulation.
What separates Voluntaryists from most people though, is their consistent application of the principles to all human interactions, no exception.
Voluntaryists do not make exceptions for anyone, including the State and parents, which is what most people do.
For example, Voluntaryists find taxation (imposed by the State) and spanking (imposed by many parents on their children) unethical whereas most of the people in the world are neutral or in positive support of taxation and spanking.
Most people are and don't realize it. A vast majority of people are peaceful and seek to do everything voluntarily in day to day interaction. What ruins everything is those same people's false belief that they need a ruler. They don't. Then they force that ruler on me.
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