A Quest To Pursue Rightful Liberty
Jun 8, 2013 10:01:50 GMT -5
Post by Michael Downing on Jun 8, 2013 10:01:50 GMT -5
Hans has been alot of thought and effort into what he has proposed in this post. Read it all and I cannot believe that there would be one among us who would not embrace it. We need to have at least one unifying principle that can bind us all together and what better cause than embracing Rightful Liberty. My thanks to Hans...
ncrenegade.com/editorial/a-quest-to-pursue-rightful-liberty/
A Quest has three stages: a Call To Adventure, a Journey, and a Return.
Over the last several years, people with whom I am acquainted have been called and are engaged in the ¡®journey¡¯ to accomplish one or more of the following:
*Reduce the size and scope of government
*Restore the Constitution
*Recover our lost liberty
When the discussion gets intense, someone will introduce Thomas Jefferson¡¯s definition of Rightful Liberty ¡ and the room goes quiet.
Different reasons, often as many as there are persons in the room, are offered as to why this definition is impractical. I have no interest to debate the objections in this forum.
Jefferson's definition should be easily embraced as the compelling vision, the goal, the desired end-state for participants in the liberty movement. Yet it is not.
I presume those who object must either have an undisclosed competing vision, or are merely unable to define a path to achieve Rightful Liberty as a desired outcome.
What follows is my attempt to complete the Quest. This is the "Return" - an effort to prescribe the actions necessary to achieve the goal. It is informed by a minimalist world-view often described as ¡°Two Rules For Civil Society¡±:
¡ödo not encroach upon others or their property
¡ödo everything you agreed to do
The achievement of rightful liberty requires deconstruction of government at both the National and State levels. For the sake of simplicity, I accept the Founders¡¯ view of a Federation among the several States.
This draft is in the form of a bill to be acted upon by the legislature. It prescribes how the North Carolina General Assembly could begin a Quest for Rightful Liberty.
There are unexplored implications and certain dangers in this proposal...
***Go to Link to read proposal****
CONCLUSION
All civil action is ultimately individual action. We struggle as individuals against encroachment and nonperformance. I and others must be willing to resist other individuals and our State. Any end-state, short of anarchy, is still a State.
I own myself, the Person. To defend my life I require freedom of action, my Liberty. To sustain my life I require things which are produced by my thoughts and labor, my Property.
My Rights in Life, Liberty and Property are ABSOLUTE because they cannot be severed in whole or in part without changing my status from sovereign to serf.
¡°All restraints upon man¡¯s liberty, not necessary for the simple maintenance of justice, are of the nature of slavery, and differ from each other only in degree.¡±
Lysander Spooner
Other persons, or groups of people, may attempt to encroach and infringe. They can only do so by initiation of force; against my will. And that leaves me morally free to retaliate with force.
¡°The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, at any time, and with utter recklessness.¡±
¡°I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.¡±
Robert Heinlein
I will only tolerate a certain amount of interference in my life.
And I get to choose how much.
ncrenegade.com/editorial/a-quest-to-pursue-rightful-liberty/
A Quest has three stages: a Call To Adventure, a Journey, and a Return.
Over the last several years, people with whom I am acquainted have been called and are engaged in the ¡®journey¡¯ to accomplish one or more of the following:
*Reduce the size and scope of government
*Restore the Constitution
*Recover our lost liberty
When the discussion gets intense, someone will introduce Thomas Jefferson¡¯s definition of Rightful Liberty ¡ and the room goes quiet.
Different reasons, often as many as there are persons in the room, are offered as to why this definition is impractical. I have no interest to debate the objections in this forum.
Jefferson's definition should be easily embraced as the compelling vision, the goal, the desired end-state for participants in the liberty movement. Yet it is not.
I presume those who object must either have an undisclosed competing vision, or are merely unable to define a path to achieve Rightful Liberty as a desired outcome.
What follows is my attempt to complete the Quest. This is the "Return" - an effort to prescribe the actions necessary to achieve the goal. It is informed by a minimalist world-view often described as ¡°Two Rules For Civil Society¡±:
¡ödo not encroach upon others or their property
¡ödo everything you agreed to do
The achievement of rightful liberty requires deconstruction of government at both the National and State levels. For the sake of simplicity, I accept the Founders¡¯ view of a Federation among the several States.
This draft is in the form of a bill to be acted upon by the legislature. It prescribes how the North Carolina General Assembly could begin a Quest for Rightful Liberty.
There are unexplored implications and certain dangers in this proposal...
***Go to Link to read proposal****
CONCLUSION
All civil action is ultimately individual action. We struggle as individuals against encroachment and nonperformance. I and others must be willing to resist other individuals and our State. Any end-state, short of anarchy, is still a State.
I own myself, the Person. To defend my life I require freedom of action, my Liberty. To sustain my life I require things which are produced by my thoughts and labor, my Property.
My Rights in Life, Liberty and Property are ABSOLUTE because they cannot be severed in whole or in part without changing my status from sovereign to serf.
¡°All restraints upon man¡¯s liberty, not necessary for the simple maintenance of justice, are of the nature of slavery, and differ from each other only in degree.¡±
Lysander Spooner
Other persons, or groups of people, may attempt to encroach and infringe. They can only do so by initiation of force; against my will. And that leaves me morally free to retaliate with force.
¡°The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, at any time, and with utter recklessness.¡±
¡°I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.¡±
Robert Heinlein
I will only tolerate a certain amount of interference in my life.
And I get to choose how much.