Writes Free Your Kids: Our “free” children do not run wild. They don’t run the house. We do not live in chaos. We do have rules in our house, but they derive from one basic premise: do what you wish so long as you’re not harming another. Hitting someone won’t be tolerated. Breaking an agreement…
Tag: consent
Are Children Self-Owners or Slaves?
Children’s “rights”* is a topic of confusion and uncertainty among libertarians. I’d like to solve this once and for all, but not right now. Perhaps someday. Today, I only ask libertarians to consider the logical conclusions of either 1) children owning themselves and therefore possessing all the “rights” associated with ownership or 2) children are…
Do You Really ‘Owe’ Those Taxes?
Written by Anonymous, as sent to Voluntaryist.com. “The question is not whether or not theft is wrong but what is considered to be theft; in the same way, murder is universally forbidden but there are great differences between peoples as to what killing is considered to be murder.” – Garrett Barden and Tim Murphy, Law…
What Voluntaryists Believe And Why
Written by Carl Watner, as published in The Voluntaryist, August 1992. [Editor’s Note: The following was written by Carl Watner in fulfillment of a request by a private retail company to print their principles on their shopping bags. SJC] We believe that the following principles of ownership are self-evident: 1. Every person, by virtue of…
Government Undermines Social Cooperation
Here is the standard false alternative beloved by politicians seeking to justify their own violence-based power. The fallacy is clear when stated this way: Since individuals acting in isolation aren’t capable of doing many things they want done, government should take charge and see that they are done.
Learning to Think
Writes Free Your Kids: Our children cannot pinpoint Egypt on a map. They don’t know their multiplication tables. They know perhaps five U.S. Presidents, total. But they understand that they own their own bodies. They know an adult has no right to do something to them without their consent. They know that authority figures do…
Voluntary Slavery and Lawful Consent
Written by Clayton for The Voluntaryist Reader. If you were to bring a contract to an arbitration hearing that had been signed under duress, the contract would be viewed as null and void because it had been signed under duress. It is not evidence of an agreement because no agreement was ever made or reached…
The Case Against Democracy: The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same
Written by Carl Watner for The Voluntaryist, August 1990. Democracy. For many, the word sums up what is desirable in human affairs. Democracy, and agitation for it, occurs all over the world: the Pro-Democracy movement in China during 1989; the democratic reform movements taking place in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. resulting in the breakup…
Being An Individual
Written by Charles Curley and Campbell Chandler for The Voluntaryist, December 1988. In order to truly be an individual, one must claim his or her inherent birthright to be happy and free. It means taking responsibility for one’s own condition, as opposed to blaming external forces; be that force a government, an unforgiving deity or…
Some Critical Considerations on the US Constitution
Guest post by Carl Watner. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, February 1988. The Constitution is one of the most revered symbols of the United States. Over the years, it has taken on all the trappings of sovereignty, commanding the loyalty of almost every American. The Constitution is “America’s uncrowned king,” because “it is above party,…