Liberty Minute February 25 2014

A slave is a person who has no right to say ?no? ? to withhold his consent to a transaction, or to refuse participation in a proposed undertaking. Slaves do not own themselves or any property they acquire. Everything they are and have can be seized and employed to serve the will of others.

Property rights, beginning with the ownership of one?s self, are the indispensable basis of any truly civilized society. And property rights must be regarded as unqualified and absolute. We are constantly told that in order for society to exist, rights must be ?balanced,? a process involving limitations on their exercise. This makes sense only if we assume that individual rights are a conditional gift of the government.

Once it is understood that property rights are absolute, aggression ? that is, the violation of those rights through force or fraud ? is likewise understood to be an absolute and unconditional evil, and thus morally impermissible. This understanding is an application of the Golden Rule, which is the paramount moral law binding upon everybody in all circumstances.

Tragically, politics is the process of seeking self-interested exceptions to the Golden Rule. This is why it usually becomes an effort by some to enslave others.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.