The Burden of an Enlightened Tax Slave

022

What do we do when we realize that taxation is theft?  

Everyone who discovers this epiphany thinks at some point in the early moments of this awakening about their role in the cause and effect of continuing to pay taxes which end up buying bombs and the trigger fingers which release them.  For now, don't worry about that too much. 

Building Foundations

021

Sometimes we encounter barriers to getting others to accept our superior peaceful ideas.  Sometimes those barriers are ones we create ourselves.  And when we notice these barriers we often fail to notice that our own lack of clarity is the issue.

Principles are like alarm clocks

020

How often do we stop to think about why we use certain devices or ideas? 

Anarchist justifications for voting Trump

019

Consistency in philosophical comprehension is necessary.  

Showing a clear path of thought progression is necessary.

But for what?  To be able to show others how one arrived at a specific conclusion so it may be examined for clarity.

Let it Go

018

There are times when we can justly act to save or help another.  And then there are times we cannot without causing further damage to our causes.  So we have to understand when to let people get hurt. 

Taxes, Moral Culpability, and Impossible Scenarios

017

As Obi-Wan Kenobi so eloquently put it, "Who is the more foolish?  The fool or the fool who follows him?"

Moral responsibility falls upon the acting individual.  If the individual's actions are voluntary from start to finish then who did this individual hurt to make their actions immoral?  

Ah, but with the introduction of coercion does the story change!

And this is what we need to know about...

Small choices create big justifications

016

The justification of small infractions and the acceptance of small acts of negligence create the justifications for greater acts of injustice.  This is the ground work beneath statements such as 'government is a necessary evil' and 'morality is subjective.' 

The introduction of fear into economics

015

If the intention of creating security is accomplished through the use of terror, then who is the security created for?  

We often do not consider the side effects of our actions to intervene into the lives of others.  Because of this we encounter many barriers to achieving what we believe will be for the greater good!  The truth of the matter is that we cannot control anyone in life to the same success as we can ourselves as individuals. 

Unity is Difficult to Forge

014

Good will towards mankind is something often limited to the end of the year holiday season.  We don't celebrate this throughout the year because the only other form of unity we come close to is fear based through nationalistic conformity, not peace through respect of consent and good will through voluntaryism. Maybe that needs to change!

The verb is the problem, not the noun

013

Too many people identify things from different perspectives. And not recognizing that is what causes so much discord between otherwise reasonable minds.  There is always more than one path to a single piece of wisdom.

Self Ownership: What popular invocations of it do not tell you.

012

Advocates of self ownership and freedom proclaim these ideas to be inherent, self evident, axiomatic, and natural. But why are we invoking them and for and from whom and what and why?

Why do people cheer Death? Castro, Consistency, and Compassion

011

Another man has died.  Why make fun of his situation?  Does the fact that his actions in life somehow make it okay to belittle him?  If it is okay to mock someone for actions that we truly do not understand the wisdom or nescience behind, then perhaps we are just as guilty for screwing up the world, if not more so, than the dead man in question.

Voting, is it moral?

010

Voting is a hot topic among many dissenters of government.  This is especially true now that many unwavering once upon a time advocates against voting have changed their position on the subject.  But is voting really a self defense mechanism as Lysander Spooner discussed before the turn of the 19th century? 

Knowledge is Power

009

The ability to understand our surroundings is our ability to refine information and transform it to our benefit.  This is true regardless of whether we pick up a bunch of sticks, chop them into neat little bundles, and then sell them to bakers for kindling in the 1400s or we simply change the words we employ in order to help calm down someone under duress and in a fit of anger to prevent further destruction of property and harm to the individual under duress.  But power isn't limited to do good! 

Majority Privilege, Not White Privilege

008

It is easy to see what is thrust into our lives as the culprit for causing all our problems.  Yet our immediate interpretations about our own experiences are not always the full story.  In this episode of Liberty & Morality Defined presents, I discuss my personal experiences with racism, white privilege, and critical thinking skills.

9/11 and My Search for the Isle de Monte Cristo

007

We don't always need to ensure the world knows about us all the time.  What we need to ensure is that we know about ourselves at all times.  That is how one comes to realize the full importance of clarity, context, communication, and consistency. 

Bread and Circuses

006

Sometimes we hear how so many people are so dearly distracted by the 'Bread & Circuses' of government institution; yet they are often invoked incorrectly.  And it is terribly unfortunately that these poorly executed ideas end up hurting people, further dividing them.  The distractions are always those ideas which do not provide any clear path of thought progression and encourage the silencing of ones voice.  But what are the distractions mean to divert attention from? 

You Must Use the System to Fight the System

005

The fact of the matter is that saying we have to obey and comply with the system is to say we have to obey and comply with the armed gunman at a place of business we like to frequent. The only difference is that few people likely want to risk taking on the gunman because they might be a casualty and not live to see the positive outcome.

Recognition of Self Worth Holds More Enlightenment than We Realize!

004

Recognizing how much you value yourself is the foundation of all property ownership, morality, and liberty. Recognition of self worth is about finding value in one's self. Without this value self ownership is none existent because the entire purpose of ownership is to set boundaries for others capable of recognizing worth, value.  This includes in themselves, others, and what is claimed as property and wealth.

Rights are Social Constructs

003

Rights are a lot of things.  But what they are not is a natural occurring anything in the rest of the universe without some kind of intelligent being devising them to be invoked with their interactions among themselves.  Gravity works regardless of whether or not we exist.  But rights only exist because we exist. 

Fear is only Strong in the Moment

002

Because fear is a powerful motivator that when refined becomes terror. And when employed it is terrorism. So what does this mean? (Read: Government is terroristic in nature; even if it is a simple majority of 9 to 1 or even 6 to 4 as the compulsion to comply is strong with adult versions of high school peer pressure.)

You are a parrot, Same as the Statist!

001

Understanding foundations is important.  The failure to build solid foundations and show with the utmost transparency in the progression of our thought process is what dooms so many ideas to failure.  We need to do more than present solutions to the world if we want lasting peace, freedom, and prosperity.  We need to show our work as if we are taking a mathematics test.