Ethics and Morals and Law, Oh My!
tzo
2011-11-08 01:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."
~Syme, 1984
Ah, words.
Philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge distinguishable from other methods by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.
When we discuss the organization of society, we are in the realm of political philosophy....
Heartless Libertarians
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tzo
2011-11-03 00:00
Column by tzo.
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The specter of the heartless libertarian arises when it is suggested that society could perhaps be better organized without a coercive government at its core. The proponents of this shocking scheme are dismissed as being either blatantly naïve or else accused of being calculating, soulless monsters who don’t want to be bothered with the less...
All Men Are Created Equal
tzo
2011-09-27 00:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
Near the end of "The Failed Theory of Relativity," I wrote:
"There must be universal objective human values and ethics that are inextricably tied to human existence and grounded in empirical fact that apply to us all. Exploring what some of them may be is beyond the scope of this little essay…."
It is now time to...
Inferno, Part II of II
tzo
2011-08-15 00:00
Column by tzo.
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Part II of II
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, (Midway upon the journey of our life,)
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, (I found myself within a forest dark,)
Che la diritta via era smarrita. (For the straightforward pathway had been lost.)
Without realizing it, the citizen has gotten off the path that he intended to take. He looks around...
Inferno, Part I of II
tzo
2011-08-12 00:00
Column by tzo.
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Quoth Nietzche with regard to the State, “Yes, a hellish artifice has been created here, a death-horse jingling with the trappings of divine honors!”
The State is perhaps better understood in this industrial and technical era as a death-machine. The true ugliness within the guts of this meat grinder is hidden behind a well-crafted...
Caveat
tzo
2011-07-19 00:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
Any rational conversation on ethics must begin with the following caveat:
If you, as an individual human being, are interested in creating and maintaining a society based on justice, cooperation, freedom, and equal human rights, then there exists a set of objective, ethical rules that can be discovered. Let’s explore them.
But if...
The Political Doctrine of Primus Inter Pares
tzo
2011-07-12 00:00
Column by tzo.
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I am going to comment here on a particular speech that Tom Woods gave in Los Angeles this past May. Mr. Woods has recently written a book about State nullification, which is a tactic he proposes as a response to Federal Government Gone Wild. I have not read the book or extensively studied all of Mr. Woods’ propositions, and so my critique is of...
Patriot Pauls and Patriot Acts, Part II of II
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tzo
2011-06-28 00:00
Column by tzo.
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Part II: Get Real
Reality check: There is little I can do to change society as it is currently configured, and the Constitutionalist must come to grips with the fact that he is in an identical situation. The Voluntaryist is ridiculed for holding a position that hardly anyone understands or is aligned with, but the same may be said of the Ron Paul...
Patriot Pauls and Patriot Acts, Part I of II
tzo
2011-06-24 00:00
Column by tzo.
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Wow. Lots of buzz lately about Rand and Ron Paul and the Patriot Act. It's got me to thinking...
This is for all the Paul supporters out there who believe that their Constitutional vision of returning the nation to the noble framework laid out by Thee Founding Fathers™ is the end to be attained. This is for all those who are disillusioned, dissatisfied...
The Great Game of Government™
tzo
2011-06-10 00:00
Column by tzo.
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Imagine you are going to participate in one of those chess games in which actual people occupy each of the 64 stations on a large board. If you agree to play, and you are assigned the role of bishop, then you can move only diagonally. Furthermore, you can only move when and how far the player who controls the army of which you are a part decides....
Zenigma
tzo
2011-05-09 00:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
The Voluntaryist Master was addressing a new class of students.
"As a Voluntaryist, your mission will be to educate others about human freedom. But in order to spread the ideas of freedom, you must first become a free person. And in order to become a truly free person, you will need to learn, unlearn and relearn many things. But acquiring...
Metamouse
tzo
2011-04-07 03:00
Column by tzo.
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Hello, and welcome. I would like to introduce you today to my metamouse, Stanley. Let me tell you a bit about Stanley: Stanley depends upon cheese in order to survive, and he has been, as a rule, very well fed. This is Stanley's home over here, which as you can see, is a maze. If you look closely, you will notice that scattered about on the floor of...
Oh, Stanley
MUST READ
tzo
2011-03-30 03:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist best known for his Milgram Experiment, a study conducted in the 1960s.
Dr. Milgram wanted to research the relationship between obedience and authority, and he was at least partly motivated to do so by the events of the Nazi Holocaust. It greatly troubled him that so many supposedly good people could...
Genesis
tzo
2011-03-23 03:00
Column by tzo.
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The subjects were not happy. The royalty of the land were taking ten percent of all the voluntary exchanges made by the subjects, and then to add insult to injury, the subjects were not even allowed to complain about this injustice for fear of being kidnapped and thrown into a dank prison or perhaps even killed. This overt tyranny was quickly becoming...
The Parable of the Lions and the Slaves
tzo
2011-03-07 04:00
Column by tzo.
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The nature of lions is to kill, and so it is good that they kill because that ensures lion survival. If an individual lion loses his teeth, that is bad because he can no longer fend for himself. If all lions were to lose their teeth, that would be the end of lions.
Humans put some lions in zoos and feed them meat and get them to reproduce....
Dear American Minarchist
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tzo
2011-02-02 04:00
Column by tzo.
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Dear American Minarchist,
I share your frustration at the course currently being set by the federal government of this nation. It is expanding its power to ever-more dangerous levels, thereby reducing the freedoms that can safely be enjoyed by all the human beings who find themselves within its purview.
Your contention is that the...
Check Your Premises
tzo
2011-01-11 04:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
Apologists for government, along with uncritical government participants (most citizens), claim that just governments exist by way of a social contract. The idea is that the people voluntarily cede a portion of their freedom to government in exchange for social order secured by the government’s rule of law. The members of government, who are...
Private Universities? Ha!
tzo
2010-12-08 04:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
The State has always needed an opinion-molding class to convince the masses that the institution of government is necessary, proper, and vital in its organization and delivery of essential public services that could not otherwise be provided.
In exchange for the creation and dissemination of such ideological propaganda, the apologist class receives certain...
The G-Word
tzo
2010-11-23 04:00
Column by tzo.
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Is it inaccurate and overly-dramatic to proclaim that government is synonymous with aggression? Sure, government can certainly be aggressive (in the sense of violating the non-aggression principle [NAP]), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything it does is aggressive, does it? Government may be an imperfect work still in progress, but perhaps we will...
Flutter
tzo
2010-11-19 04:00
Column by tzo.
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A common criticism of natural law, which posits an objective set of rules for ethical human behavior, is the claim that human behavior can never be subject to objective law in the same way that physical objects are subject to objective physical laws, like gravity.
You see, the word “objective” lands us in the realm of science, and science scoffs...
Millions of Petty Tyrants
tzo
2010-11-05 03:00
Column by tzo.
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The empirical evidence that power corrupts goes a long way in explaining the inevitable one-way course to tyranny trod by all governments. Having a monopoly on force, corruption within the government monopoly cannot be effectively checked, and growing corruption and its attendant increasing power eventually congeal into absolute power and absolute...
Hail, Ruritania!
tzo
2010-10-22 03:00
Column by tzo.
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So a group of 20 people find themselves stranded on a previously uninhabited, lush, and rather large island that could support perhaps ten times as many people.
There is an abundance of fish, birds, fruit and other edible vegetation, rainwater, and plenty of trees and other raw materials for building shelter and making tools.
The 20 go...
The Failed Theory of Relativity
tzo
2010-10-14 03:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
Voluntaryism is, primarily, an ethical philosophy applied to the organization of society. Most of the common modern social organization theories (e.g., “democracy”) focus on organizing society based upon what the majority feels is right and always with an eye toward the utilitarian target that is the greatest good for the greatest number....
Annoying Guy
tzo
2010-09-29 03:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
A play in one act. SCENE: Two people chatting in a coffee shop.
A: Let me ask you something. Are you an ethical person?
B: I would like to think so, yes.
A: Do you use violence to get what you want?
B: No! What do you mean?
A: If you want a new shirt, do you steal it from someone?
B: Of course not.
A:...
Aristophanes' Law
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tzo
2010-09-24 03:00
Column by tzo.
Exclusive to STR
Some 2,400 years ago, the Greek playwright Aristophanes put forth an idea in one of his plays that I would like to codify into a law of human behavior. Here are the pertinent lines from his play "The Frogs":
The course our city runs is the same towards men and money.
She has true and worthy sons.
She has fine new gold and ancient...
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