What would it mean to live in a completely free society? In dealing with personal sovereignty, which takes precedence: freedom of association or property rights? At first glance, we know that these two are tied together into one idea through self-ownership but when looked at more deeply, they can conflict.

There are Two Constructions of Libertarianism as set up by Chandran Kukathas in Libertarian Papers Vol 1, 11 (2009). One of these is a world in which there is complete freedom of association—the right to give up your libertarian right for the moment to whatever is yours in order to live in a statist or communal society, which can end up a world where we have many property rights violations, like those born into such communities who are not shown the way. The other is authoritarian propertarianism – self-ownership protected against those who would take it from you; meaning immoral agents barricading the knowledge of your libertarian rights from you. Continue reading

As libertarians, one of the reasons that we crave the salvation that comes with a stateless society is because we believe that within humans is the same need that we see in every living thing and even every subatomic particle that exists in the Universe – this is the ability to allow for autonomy, self-direction and the respect that should come with this responsibility. Even if something is an unthinking atom, a beautiful lantana flower, or a large beast like the blue whale, what we can say for sure is that the only thing obstructing their paths in doing what they so please and dealing with these consequences are the regularities of nature and the interspecies and intraspecies competition that comes with being part of a dynamic Universe and thriving world. I want to go over the correlation that we see between such passion in the political sphere and how it could and should extend to our personal lives. Continue reading

One amazing similarities between other ideologies and libertarianism is the thought that each one of them has decided that whatever programs are currently in place, we are absolutely sure that everyone is living at the expense of everyone else, that everybody is at once a parasite and a host. Most people think that it is something intrinsically wrong with human nature when they look around and see the government hurting their citizens, the governments hurting each others’ citizens, the woman and the minority being paid less than racial majorities for a myriad of sociological reasons, businesses being in cut-throat competition with each other, men killing, raping, murdering, etc. Continue reading

Using the political means in order to establish that the political means is inhumane and negates nature and individual sovereignty. You do not kill an innocent person to show a murderer that killing is wrong; you do not steal a persons’ property to convey to a thief that theft is a transgression.
Our means must be as worthy and beautiful as our ends. Different movements have tried to usurp governmental powers for decades and centuries tried to “get the right people in,” or get the right legislation passed. Continue reading

Law: The rule of conduct and the mechanism for applying those rules

The topic of private arbitration has been covered on Reason For Liberty before, but the question is what sort of incentives does socialization of justice and security provide to a peoples? How is this different from those of custom law and privatized defense? Continue reading

Social contract theory is the idea that men form states and/or to maintain social order. The idea that men give up some rights to a government(or any other power) to achieve and to maintain a rule of law-goes almost as far back as philosophy itself; when we moved from “studying” cosmogony(theories of creation of universe) to the formulating theories of cosmology and began progressing from fearing the wrath of Gods and what they may do to us to a more refined ontological inquisition as to how man must live while on this Earth. Continue reading

For those who went to public schools in America, perhaps you can remember being excited your first day. Although anxious, I was invigorated by the idea of learning, of getting away my mothers knees, being turned out into what seemed like a vast new world of unlimited opportunity where I would learn how to be an adult, how to discern good information from bad, and how to use my faculties to become the best person I could be. I was excited to prove myself to the world and to myself, to know all of my colors, letters and numbers, and whatever came after that. At this age, school was what you expected it to be. Continue reading

If you could identify all of the reasons for liberty, on how many fingers would you count? Would it be utilitarian; that it produces the most goods, the best quality goods, and at the lowest cost? Would it be that freedom is the only role proper to man given his natural propensities? Would it be that it allows for the most diversity, most job-specifications, and fosters the growth of new ideas?
There are innumerable benefits that we could name. In the face of an adversary, the best supporting evidence you can give is its foundation: reason itself. Libertarianism and individualism are the only consistent philosophies to be offered. If you believe in it, you need not know the details of each government program, need not know the costs vs. the benefits of a given piece of legislation and how it affects a myriad of separate people or a demographic as a whole—although you probably will. It provides such a concrete substratum on which to base all of your decisions and your judgment calls. Continue reading