Tag: rights

What Do You Have a Right To?

On By seancovellIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Enough About Your Rights

            This post will be short and may sound like a rant, but I feel the need to clarify the difference between actual “rights” and things people wish they had. In today’s social media environment, there are so many millions who like to say that they have a “right” to free education, a “right” to free healthcare, a “right” to a certain income. These are not rights. These are wants. No one has a right to ask something to be free while others are paying for the service. In fact, there are only a few rights that exist to humans. Among them are the right to life, liberty and property. That’s it!

This means that you have a right to your life—no one else has a claim on it. You have a right to own property, which comes from the fact that you own your body and what your body produces via work in the marketplace. Lastly, you have the right to liberty, meaning that no one else has a right to initiate violence or aggression against you, nor do you have a right to do so to anyone else. Liberty means that so long as you are not violating another person’s life or property, or initiating aggression against another, you are essentially free to go about your business. These are really the only rights that exist for all humans. Just as you have no right to a free car, because you would be violating someone else’s property and liberty by taking one, you also do not have a right to free college (because someone would have to pay to service your education—a violation of their property, their money and time). The same goes for health care. As long as someone is spending time and energy to service your health care, they must be compensated. You do not have a right to ask others to pay for what you are receiving. That would be a violation of their property, their money. You have no right to a “universal income” without producing valuable work to earn income. Even if the government is paying, other individuals are truly the ones on the hook for what the government spends.

I apologize if this all sounds harsh. You may have been told you have endless rights to many things. Much of this is due to that fact that the government is engaged in other activities and spending on programs besides concerning itself with protecting your liberty and property. Government should exist to protect your rights and that’s it. You do have rights after all. You have the right liberty, life and property. You have the right to not have others violate your rights. You do not have a right to violate other’s life, liberty or property. You do not have the right to ask for a product or service for free, because someone must spend their labor and money to support that product or service, so asking it for free would be a violation of their rights. It’s also worth noting that groups do not have rights, only individuals have rights. You do not have special rights because you identify with a certain group of people. Nor do you have fewer rights because you’re a part of a group. We all have the same rights—life, liberty and property.

In Liberty,

Sean

Democracy: The Big Lie

On By seancovellIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.” – Hans Herman Hoppe

I felt obligated to write this after watching the news coverage on this Election Day, 2016. Everywhere I turn, I hear the word democracy. The word democracy is something thrown around in the culture today as if it were the true ideal for any society. It’s supposed to be something that is virtuous and synonymous with freedom. In the United States, school children are mistakenly taught that America is a democracy. In fact, the founders of the United States understood democracy to be something to be avoided. Most of them detested the word. Why? Because they understood that democracy is tyranny of the majority. The majority rule ethic of democracy allows certain people to have their rights and property taken from them because a majority of the people decided so. Jefferson, Madison and others understood that the true ideal is individual liberty and that a majority can and will easily violate the rights of the minority if allowed to do so. Instead, they attempted to establish a Constitutional Republic—one in which representatives are elected into a government, but are restrained by limitations on their powers as well as term limits. Other Amendments to the Constitution were written to ensure that individual and state rights were not trampled upon by the legislators who assumed power. The State was supposed to have its power “shackled” by the Constitution. Our founders failed us.

Unfortunately, America has come to a point where the majority of the citizens are now on some assistance from the State, meaning that the majority of the people have succeeded in plundering the rest as a way to survive. This plunder is done in the name of democracy through taxation, bonds, fees and inflation of the money supply. You may know these programs as “entitlements, Social Security, fair share taxation and monetary easing”. Regardless of the name they go by, they all have one thing in common: certain groups are being plundered so that others may prosper. The law is being used to aggress against others and take from them—not protect them as laws are supposed to do. Yet, we are told to believe that because most of the people want it, it must be ethical. We are told by politicians that they have a mandate from the people. Obviously this logic, if followed through to its conclusion, has scary implications for groups who disagree with the majority. I believe Leo Tolstoy summed it up best, “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”

Democracy was never the ideal in America until very recently. In fact, Liberty was the ideal. Liberty runs counter to democracy because it favors private property rights and non-aggression—which basically says that one cannot initiate violence against you, your party or your property even through legislative means. Let me suggest to you that we return to the ideal of liberty rather than entitlement. Self-reliance rather than plunder. Hard work rather than state assistance. Some will read this and no doubt say that I am cold-hearted. The opposite is true. The larger the State becomes, the less free its citizens are, even if a majority has elected the government. Without freedom, we cannot fulfill our potential as humans. Without liberty, we are stripped of our humanity. It’s democracy that is cold-hearted. It’s democracy that strips away individual rights. It’s the leviathan of the state that we must be wary of. So on Election Day, ask yourself, “What have I done to make myself and my family more free?” If your reply is that you participated in this great democracy, you have chosen to use force against your fellow citizen. Choose liberty over force. Choose individual rights over the majority rule.

In Liberty,

Sean

Why I’m a Libertarian (And Why You Should Be One Also, in 800 Words)

On By seancovellIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Republicans hate me. Democrats loathe me. Why? I’m a staunch Libertarian and I have little tolerance for government intervention in our lives. Democrats and Republicans love government and see it as a tool to maintain power and control over others. They are Statists; they worship the State. The State is their idol, their god. Both parties believe in the “Noble Lie” from Machiavelli. They believe it’s acceptable to lie to the people because most are too stupid for their own good. Statists believe they know how to spend your money better than you. They know what to teach your children. They know what types of food you should eat and how much of your income you should be left with. They know that only they should have guns, nuclear weapons and drones because they are wise and you are stupid and dangerous. They know better than you because they are the elite. As Hegel put it, the state is all, a God walking on the Earth. The individual is nothing. This is what the “right and the left” believe—that the individual is secondary to the collective, to the State.

So, I’m a Libertarian because I believe that you own your own body and no one else, including the State, has a claim on it. I believe in private property rights. I believe taxation is theft. Taxation assumes the government owns the fruits of your labor and allows you to keep a certain percentage. If 100% taxation is slavery, at what point is it not? I believe that the world consists of only individuals and the terms “society” and “collective” diminish the value of the individual. I believe you have the right to defend yourself against aggression. I believe that the only laws that should exist would enforce private contracts and promote non-aggression towards others. I believe that government is force, nothing more. I believe that governments have murdered more people throughout history than any other entity. I believe that large groups of people do not have more superior rights than an individual, and that democracies trample the liberties of men far more than monarchs. I reject the tyranny of the majority. I believe the State allows people to steal from their neighbors via the law.

I believe in non-aggression and if you haven’t aggressed against anyone, you are free to do what you desire. I believe you are free to do whatever you desire as long as you do not harm others. I believe that government is the antithesis of freedom and the larger it grows, the less free everyone is. I believe that so long as people see government as a tool to enrich themselves other than a force, they will continue to steal wealth from others through taxation. I believe that more people than ever are reliant on the State and it’s destroying our humanity. I believe in the free market and as long as people do not commit fraud or harm, they are entitled to all the monies the marketplace delivers to them. I believe the courts are tools to increase government power. I believe in nullification—that jurors and communities of people can refuse to enforce laws that violate the non-aggression principle and private property laws. I believe that all laws that violate these principles are unjust and therefore should be null and void. I believe that if a gang of people got together and went around with guns taking money from people for whatever reason they claimed, people would see that as a violation of their natural rights and would fight back. I believe this is what the State does daily. I believe this violates the principles of liberty that all humans are born with. I believe you should take back your freedom. I believe that if you think you own your body and you are entitled to what your body’s labor produces, you are a libertarian. I believe if you smoke weed or do other “illegal” things and you’re not hurting anyone, you should be a Libertarian.

I believe that if you are a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew or any other religion that believes in non-aggression and the Golden Rule, you should be a Libertarian. I believe if you oppose theft, murder and rape, you should be a Libertarian. I believe that if you vote to steal from your neighbor because you are envious of them, you are a bad person. I believe the law should protect freedom not violate it. I believe that no one should be allowed to use the law to trample individual liberty. I believe if you agree with me on all of this because the arguments are rational and in line agreement with nature, you are a Libertarian. I believe if you want freedom, you must be a Libertarian.

I believe that gay, married couples should be able to protect their children and marijuana farms with fully automatic firearms because no other authority has the right to tell them they can’t. That is why I am a Libertarian.