Voluntaryism
An analysis of its values, shortcomings, and legitimacy
FREEDOM ISNT FREE, IT REQUIRES VIGILANCE
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Before I begin my analysis, please read the summary below of what Voluntaryism is, from voluntaryist.com.
Voluntaryism is the doctrine that relations among people should be by mutual consent, or not at all. It represents a means, an end, and an insight. Voluntaryism does not argue for the specific form that voluntary arrangements will take; only that force be abandoned so that individuals in society may flourish. As it is the means which determine the end, the goal of an all voluntary society must be sought voluntarily.
People cannot be coerced into freedom. Hence, the use of the free market, education, persuasion, and non-violent resistance as the primary ways to change people’s ideas about the State. The voluntaryist insight, that all tyranny and government are grounded upon popular acceptance, explains why voluntary means are sufficient to attain that end.
The Epistemological Argument
Violence is never a means to knowledge. As Isabel Paterson, explained in her book, The God of the Machine, “No edict of law can impart to an individual a faculty denied him by nature. A government order cannot mend a broken leg, but it can command the mutilation of a sound body. It cannot bestow intelligence, but it can forbid the use of intelligence.” Or, as Baldy Harper used to put it, “You cannot shoot a truth!” The advocate of any form of invasive violence is in a logically precarious situation. Coercion does not convince, nor is it any kind of argument. William Godwin pointed out that force “is contrary to the nature of the intellect, which cannot but be improved by conviction and persuasion,” and “if he who employs coercion against me could mold me to his purposes by argument, no doubt, he would.. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because he is weak.” Violence contains none of the energies that enhance a civilized human society. At best, it is only capable of expanding the material existence of a few individuals, while narrowing the opportunities of most others.
The Economic Argument
People engage in voluntary exchanges because they anticipate improving their lot; the only individuals capable of judging the merits of an exchange are the parties to it. Voluntaryism follows naturally if no one does anything to stop it. The interplay of natural property and exchanges results in a free market price system, which conveys the necessary information needed to make intelligent economic decisions. Interventionism and collectivism make economic calculation impossible because they disrupt the free market price system. Even the smallest government intervention leads to problems which justify the call for more and more intervention. Also, “controlled” economies leave no room for new inventions, new ways of doing things, or for the “unforeseeable and unpredictable.” Free market competition is a learning process which brings about results which no one can know in advance. There is no way to tell how much harm has been done and will continue to be done by political restrictions.
The Moral Argument
The voluntary principle assures us that while we may have the possibility of choosing the worst, we also have the possibility of choosing the best. It provides us the opportunity to make things better, though it doesn’t guarantee results. While it dictates that we do not force our idea of “better” on someone else, it protects us from having someone else’s idea of “better” imposed on us by force. The use of coercion to compel virtue eliminates its possibility, for to be moral, an act must be uncoerced. If a person is compelled to act in a certain way (or threatened with government sanctions), there is nothing virtuous about his or her behavior. Freedom of choice is a necessary ingredient for the achievement of virtue. Whenever there is a chance for the good life, the risk of a bad one must also be accepted.
The Natural Law Argument – Fundamentals of Voluntaryism
Common sense and reason tell us that nothing can be right by legislative enactment if it is not already right by nature. Epictetus, the Stoic, urged men to defy tyrants in such a way as to cast doubt on the necessity of government itself. “If the government directed them to do something that their reason opposed, they were to defy the government. If it told them to do what their reason would have told them to do anyway, they did not need a government.” Just as we do not require a State to dictate what is right or wrong in growing food, manufacturing textiles, or in steel-making, we do not need a government to dictate standards and procedures in any field of endeavor. “In spite of the legislature, the snow will fall when the sun is in Capricorn, and the flowers will bloom when it is in Cancer.”
The Means-End Argument – Fundamentals of Voluntaryism
Although certain services and goods are necessary to our survival, it is not essential that they be provided by the government. Voluntaryists oppose the State because it uses coercive means. The means are the seeds which bud into flower and come into fruition. It is impossible to plant the seed of coercion and then reap the flower of voluntaryism. The coercionist always proposes to compel people to do some-thing, usually by passing laws or electing politicians to office. These laws and officials depend upon physical violence to enforce their wills. Voluntary means, such as non-violent resistance, for example, violate no one’s rights. They only serve to nullify laws and politicians by ignoring them. Voluntaryism does not require of people that they violently overthrow their government, or use the electoral process to change it; merely that they shall cease to support their government, whereupon it will fall of its own dead weight. If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.
The Consistency Argument – Fundamentals of Voluntaryism
It is a commonplace observation that the means one uses must be consistent with the goal one seeks. It is impossible to “wage a war for peace” or “fight politics by becoming political.” Freedom and private property are total, indivisible concepts that are compromised wherever and whenever the State exists. Since all things are related to one another in our complicated social world, if one man’s freedom or private property may be violated (regardless of the justification), then every man’s freedom and property are insecure. The superior man can only be sure of his freedom if the inferior man is secure in his rights. We often forget that we can secure our liberty only by preserving it for the most despicable and obnoxious among us, lest we set precedents that can reach us.
The Integrity, Self-Control, and Corruption Argument
It is a fact of human nature that the only person who can think with your brain is you. Neither can a person be compelled to do anything against his or her will, for each person is ultimately responsible for his or her own actions. Governments try to terrorize individuals into submitting to tyranny by grabbing their bodies as hostages and trying to destroy their spirits. This strategy is not successful against the person who harbors the Stoic attitude toward life, and who refuses to allow pain to disturb the equanimity of his or her mind, and the exercise of reason. A government might destroy one’s body or property, but it cannot injure one’s philosophy of life. – Furthermore, the voluntaryist rejects the use of political power because it can only be exercised by implicitly endorsing or using violence to accomplish one’s ends. The power to do good to others is also the power to do them harm. Power to compel people, to control other people’s lives, is what political power is all about. It violates all the basic principles of voluntaryism: might does not make right; the end never justifies the means; nor may one person coercively interfere in the life of another. Even the smallest amount of political power is dangerous. First, it reduces the capacity of at least some people to lead their own lives in their own way. Second, and more important from the voluntaryist point of view, is what it does to the person wielding the power: it corrupts that person’s character.1
Now, I have responded to the question of Voluntaryism as a solution for society in a previous article, which you can read below, but in this piece, I will be opening the discussion up further and diving into some more nuanced areas.
My fundamental argument amd position regarding Volintaryism is that any single man may choose Voluntaryism, which is to say simply, to choose an honorable and noble life, but society as a whole, or even humanity as a whole is composed of the entire spectrum of human potential, which is to say those who will refuse to live in honor and Nobility. As such, it is nigh absolutely improbable to form a society of Voluntaryists that could sustain itself over any real length of time. Utopian thoughts leave out the dirty truths.
Now I will take us through several points that support this thesis.
1. The Mental Faculty of Humanity
While IQ is not the only or perhaps even the most significant qualifier for the success of Voluntaryism on a societal level, it certainly does play a large role. Taking the uSA as an example, which has a higher per capita IQ than the majority of nations on the planet, and considering that this nation is perhaps most poised, or at least once was, for a society that incorporates ultimate Liberty, we can make short work of the potential for Voluntaryist society to develop anywhere else, with even less probability.
The uSA population has roughly 50-60 million extremely stupid people… And another 100 million slightly less stupid.
The average chimpanzee has an IQ of 23. Dolphins, potentially up to 45. Animal intelligence isn't qualified in the same way as human intelligence, but we can make estimations.
With that said, we can see that the person with a 60 IQ is only 15 points above an dolphin, and 37 above a chimp…. That means they are as cognitively distant from a dolphin as they are from a significantly unintelligent below average person with a 75 IQ… These people make up somewhere around 6 million Americans. Only 25 points away from the dolphin is almost 50 million Americans. And at double the IQ of the dolphin is over 100 million Americans.
Viewing the spread from the average, the intelligence gap between the dolphin and the quite intelligent is 45-155, and thus the average American is as far from the 155 IQ intelligence people as they are from a dolphin.
I hope my point is getting across. Stupidity abounds. Intelligence is rare. What appears world shattering for the dolphin would be unremarkable for the 6 million lowest intelligence Americans. What appears remarkable to the 155 intelligence people would be inconceivable for the 55 IQ people, and probably even the 125 or perhaps even 145 IQ people.
Complex concepts are not able to be digested widely, but simple propaganda is easily consumed. Authority and appearance of authority will sway the mob of dullards this way and that just as a conductor will move the music with his hands, or the puppeteer moves his Pinocchio. It does not matter whether you are right or wrong… as we can see everyday and throughout history, it is whether your gambit of authority pays off that moves the human herd.
Voluntaryism demands personal accountability, extremely high personally developed morality (as relative to the standards and norms of today or most of history), a virtuous nature in regards to others, a demeanor that proffers peace and good will, and disallows unjust violence and disputation.
How many people do you know that have these qualities as individuals? How would they rank in intelligence? Do they represent the majority, or are they quite uncommon? Let's be honest here…
2. Biological limitations
Voluntaryiam has at its root, the eradication of authority. But there are different forms of authority. There is the obviously nefarious form of authority which supplies no real value to humanity and leeches off of humanity to serve the interests of a parasitical class. Then… there is the authority that is granted by the voluntary delegation of it to some other party.
The natural form of authority, is exampled in the fact that we transfer our individual agency by commission for various exchanges to others based on their talents, skills, knowledge, experience, or other attributes that exceed our personal ability or intereat, for the purpose of accomplishing a thing.
This natural dissemination or delegation of authority is what creates the cohesion and interdependence of the tribe, the nation, and thus the race and humanity. While independence has been necessarily highlighted to further individual and inherant rights, we have seen this be twisted into a destructive spiral of ever decreasing connection between familial groups and ever increasing dependence on the state rather than tribe, nation, race.
Just as the free market moves by demand and supply, so does authority move. People delegate their authority to those most capable of managing it in their best interest, just the same as one hires the best mechanic they can find to work on their vehicle. Rather than having to do everything, we delegate out tasks so as to focus upon the things we are most interested in.
A functional society has a base requirement of the ability for the general populace to delegate authority to others to manage affairs that require talents, time, and inclination that every individual may not, and likely does not, have.
When does delegated authority become false authority? When you cannot retrieve that authority at will. What conditions might exist that create retardation of that retraction? The existence of contractual relationships that bind people in honor to fulfill obligations set forth. Meaning, that if you and me make an agreement in that I will receive services of protection from villainy on my land, but I exchange 2 years of service in the militia for such. I do my time protecting other landowners for 2 years, then my lands receive same treatment. Who did I contract with? A central figure of some kind who manages the militia perhaps. Whoever it was, if I have yet to fulfill my obligation, my exit from the agreement is in dishonor and invalid. But as soon as I fulfill the agreement, I may retrieve any authority prior delegated. No agreements made by anyone else can influence my autonomy and personal agency.
When I make the decision to split my personal authority into distinct parts and pass these parts to others, what are the driving factors for deciding upon the people to recieve this burden and gift. Would I choose a person I know to be a swindler or thief? Would I choose a machiavellian psychopath or a pathological liar? Probably not…
I would base my decision upon some string of logical reasoning, empathy and mirror neuron engagement, and emotional resonance. If the person had a long history of good relations with others that I knew, like family and friends, and shared common anecdotal and cultural themes and of I felt good in their presence, I would probably choose them over someone who did not ring those bells. Can I trust you to abide by my will and serve my interests? That is the question. And with the right conditions, delegated authority can be a very good answer to that question.
The nature of group dynamics has shown that, no matter what people do to avoid this outcome, hierarchies will always develop. Some people have an organic and abundant charisma, supreme confidence, a strong track record of successes, and the ability to orate grandly. Others are unable to spark an ounce of confidence and can barely squeeze out a word in a crowd. This natural inclination that is unique to every individual, will distinguish humanity into its various archetypes and social positions, just as it has been for all of human history and just as it is for all of life in all its infinite variety. Some are natural born leaders and others are natural born followers. Independent people are those who seek to be beyond the scope of calculation within social dynamics. They exist in every culture and they are just as important to the development and evolution of that culture as all the other parts.
People will always migrate to those that are hormonally more tuned and they will seek resonance with them beyond all intellectual opposition. The pharamones of the high testosterone men will continue to regulate our evolution just as much as this existence will always distribute heat to the depths of the coldest corners of the universe in an infinite game of cat and mouse. Unstoppable and immeasurable. This is the force that concurrently works upon humanity to regulate the social order that surpasses all human egoism. A tall man can pick a peach from the limb without jumping, but a short man must build a ladder, though maybe the short man won't have as many headaches from whacking their head on everything. Natural ability and talent. It is biologically, genetically, inherently present in some, and most definitely not all.
Contingency is the idea that cues that predict an increase or decrease in outcome of a particular type will produce a greater or lesser behavioral change to accommodate for that outcome prior to the outcome. It would make sense that humanity has produced its social structures, governance models, and authority systems in accordance with contingency. This particular point could be an entire book in and of itself, but basically lends credence to the thesis that people have done the best they can at every given opportunity to produce the highest beneficial outcome, even if the advamced outliers of humanity can perceive moreethical, moral, utopian ways of cohabitation.
3. Tragic Optimism
“If I work really hard at convincing as many people as possible that my utopian dream is worthy, it will come true.”
Hey guys, I am just as culpable of evangelizing my thoughts with extreme and persistent, sometimes vitriolic, exertions. But there is a gaussian curve for everything in the universe, and the one that describes the probability of society as a whole embracing and fulfilling the voluntaryist wetdream, shows that outcome as an outlier to a near inexhaustably infinitesimal quantity.
If one attempts to travel to a star and dismisses every single one of the necessary steps required to get to that star, they will never arrive. Rather, if they accept that fact that there are a multitude of plateaus that they will need to reach on their journey, they will be able to actually measure rheur progress and accomplishments.
Voluntaryiam seems to have a tragic optimism at its core that disallows a realistic, pragmatic, and gradational approach to the outcome desired.
In Star Wars, it was said, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” With that in mind, why is it considered that any application of authority surrendered to another is beyond consideration for advancement toward the outcome.
It is impossible to go zero to one-hundred as a society. The tragic optimism of voluntaryism is probably its greatest downfall in its application.
4. History of Revolutions and Enlightenments
No revolution was started by the firebrands. All revolutions are a result of the aspirations of the middle class, who are the greatest enemy and tool of the parasitical class. An idea that cannot be adopted by the middle class will never become mainstream. Voluntaryism is practiced by a large number of people in a large number of areas in their day to day, but the practice of obiesance to governments, the statist addiction, is not one of those areas.
A revolution will generally proceed along these lines…
Firebrands light fires everywhere, but mostly go unnoticed or ignored.
A shift occurs in which the middle class assumes at least one ideological distinction that puts them at odds with current paradigm of governance. Their aspirations lead them to recognize the shortcomings of the government.
Middle class demands in increasing volume and violence the changes they require to achieve their aspirations.
At some point, the tidal wave of public opinion becomes the tsunami of action, but only for a short period of time. The government is forced into some change.
People go back to their normal lives, feeling good about themselves for being part of a change on a grand scale.
Voluntaryism doesn't have the ease of transition of a normal revolution, because it is not a normal revolution. People will not understand or accept voluntaryism on a grand scale in any short period of time, such as a few generations, because it requires a shift greater than any prior revolution. It requires an enlightenment of all the people simultaneously. If this is not achieved, voluntaryism will only be practiced by a few outliers, as the epitome of moral and intelligent people have always been outliers from society as a whole.
5. Evil
Evil and lies, like a fog creeps slowly, but constantly over the land, but Goodness and Truth arrives like lightning, bringing rapid and unavoidable awareness. When it is gone, the fog again begins its creep.
Even if Voluntaryism were to somehow be adopted on a societal level, a national level, or a global level, the fact remains that those with evil intentions and who plan, and plot, and leverage cunning and willpower, will always exist to drag humanity into chains again. And even the most enlightened society will degrade as the pattern of human society is striving which produces strength and fortitude, followed by relaxing and enjoying, which produces tolerance, apathy, and languor.
We rise only to fall, and fall only to rise. Perfection is the aim, but will never be reached, not on this planet and not with humanity. There will always be more to do, and there will always be an enemy of one type or another.
Tyranny and Authority will always exist.
6. Tolerance
Acceptance of the choices of other individuals has a limit. What you tolerate will expand itself.
It is the idea of tolerance that leads to the destruction of independent cultures. Tolerance leads to the whittling away at the identity of a tribe or nation. It fundamentally weakens the body of those people that practice it. To tolerate is to not accept, agree, or want something but to allow it to perpetuate anyway.
Tolerance is a Abrahamic, or Chriatian, virtue. It is not a virtue of European peoples, and it is not a virtue of indigenous Americans, or Asians, or Africans. Tolerance was a conquering ideology to whittle away at host cultures. To indoctrinate them into a state of acceptance if wickedness without resistance.
Voluntaryism preaches tolerance of others, so long as those others do not violate inherant individual rights. But what about violation of national cohesion? What about violation of a race of people that have particular ways of being that are being violated?
As an example…
Language. If a people in a particular geography speak one language, and an influx of newcomers arrive to that geographical area speaking another language, and demand others speak that language if they do any business with them… and if these newcomers also provide a service that is needed, and over time they become very wealthy and buy all the land and businesses… the language of the people who were there first would rapidly fade as the dominant language would be forced upon them by the simple demand by the newcomers that if they did business, it would be in their own tongue.
This is a violation of an entire nation of peoples, and yet it is a violation that was less perceived by all, because it took time, and cunning, and patience and an abnormally observant person to recognize.
Voluntaryiam does not provide for a defense against this, and would probably see this as a natural progression of events, as each individual is responsible for themselves, not the entirety of the nation.
But this is exactly how nations die by parasitical infection of the stateless wandering parasites, the Globalists.
So, a defense against this would be strong cohesion and blood ties, and interdependence, and proper familial structures, and proper tribal governance, and proper national governance. Defense of the body of people's against the forces that work not on the independent or overt methods of assault, but the collective, subversive, and covert.
7. Everyone is a Voluntaryist
This may seems oxymoronic, but the fact is, that everyone has made choices in their lives based on the environment they find themselves in. At no point was there zero choices to be made for any human. While we cannot control everything in our environment, we can and must absolutely control our response to that environment.
Someone who chooses to delegate authority to another is still yet exercising their autonomy by choosing that. It becomes not voluntary when that persons child, or any other person is held accountable for the decision made by that individual. But so long as they decide for themselves to delegate authority outside of themselves, and it affects none other than themselves and that authority, it is voluntary. If a collective group of people consensed by 100% voluntary and exitable consensus to delegate authority to a third party, it would still be voluntary. It is not voluntary when the decision to exit that agreement is stripped by force from those individuals.
Everyone, generally, in the populace prefers voluntary exchange and voluntaryism, than any other form of interaction and being, and this can be seen whenever and wherever we go. People naturally migrate to voluntaryist behavior whenever possible. Just test this as you go about your day. Provide people the option to violate you by stealing or trespassing etc… they won't do it. Only a small percentage of retards and psychopaths will do so.
Conclusion:
Voluntaryism is the highest, most moral, noble, and dignified way of being for any average human being… but it is not at all probable to become a societal structure of any real significance. It is a practice for individuals and small groups, not Nations and Tribes.
Also, I want to note here, that this entire article.is a response to those who do not really understand Voluntaryism, which seems to be quote a lot of people. When the term Voluntaryism is used properly, many of the arguments here begin to argue in favor of Voluntaryism.
An example of this is that true Voluntaryism is not opposed to a Nation of people, with a King or Republic. The only caveat is that every single person in that nation must be able to exit that government, to secede.
Anyway, let me know what you think people. I am always genuinely curious as to your thoughts on my writings.
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https://voluntaryist.com/fundamentals/fundamentals-of-voluntaryism/