Well, I guess a delay of three weeks beats the months I took off between the last two posts… Progress! This should be the last of the introductory posts before I start going off in different directions and seeing where that takes me. (And I’m only giving myself about 15 minutes to write this, since I need a self-imposed deadline to avoid staring at my computer monitor for half the night.)
My goal here is to quickly sketch the fundamental principles from which my later political posts will follow. I will start from the premise that government (defined as some individual or group having an effective monopoly on the use of force in a given area) is inevitable. Anarchy is possible, but it is unstable and unlikely to last for long.
Given that, the next issue becomes the identification of government’s proper objective. What is the end towards which that monopoly on force should be directed? The only proper goal can be the protection of the individual rights of the society’s members. In turn, these rights will wind up being overwhelmingly negative. In other words, the focus will be on the right to be secure in your person against assault and in your property against theft, etc., as opposed to a right to food, health care, and so on, which can only be realized by the confiscation of someone else’s property or their coerced labor. The obvious exception to this would be the creation of police and military forces to prevent the unjustified use of force by domestic and foreign actors respectively and the establishment of a legal system to settle disputes. To the extent that the government is going to prohibit self-help (which would otherwise be justified), it has a duty to provide an alternate form of protection.
In this model, the rule of law will take its place as a (very important) means to an end, but still only a means. It will only (ethically) require obedience to the extent that it is in line with the principles just described. When the law oversteps its bounds, the question of compliance will turn on the individual’s values and the specifics of the situation. In some situations, it may be a simple utilitarian calculation. If the punishment for jaywalking is the death penalty and I know I will be caught, I won’t do it. On the other hand, there will be some situations that implicate values too important to surrender regardless of the consequences.
And with that I see I am already past my deadline, so that will have to be it for tonight!
Inner Questions 