Give me Liberty – Voluntaryism
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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
Voluntaryism
(This is part two of a two-part opinion piece.)
If you read my opinion last week where I covered the 23 enumerated powers that our federal government is limited to, I also hope that you took a moment to realize how much they over-reach their authority and how much it is personally costing you in taxes to support their usurpation of authority and power.
The United States was formed when 13 individual British colonies came together in 1776 to declare themselves as free and independent states that were united in their common cause to defend their freedom. After much debate, the Continental Congress adopted the “Articles of Confederation.”
The guiding principle of the articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states, with a weak central government that received only those powers which the former colonies had recognized as belonging to their former king and the British Parliament. The Articles of Confederation as written eventually proved ineffective, and this led to the writing and adoption of our current United States Constitution, with a slightly stronger central government, but one that still preserved the independence and sovereignty of the states, as echoed in the 10th Amendment to our Constitution, which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Our federal government was never meant to be the monster that it has become.
The founding fathers of the United States; the statesmen who crafted the Declaration of Independence, our United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights; were some of the most brilliant minds to ever gather together and collaborate in the history of all mankind. Those men, “if ” they could be teleported through time from when they were still living to today, would absolutely find our current government practically unrecognizable.
Even though our United States Constitution has only been amended 27 times in its 233 years of existence, men like Jefferson, Washington, Adams, and Franklin would be shocked at the extreme bloat, overreach, inefficiency, and cost of our current government. …After all, they had just fought a war of rebellion and independence to escape the clutches of a government that wanted to tax Americans a fraction of what we the people are taxed today.
That said, I offer to you what our founding fathers intended – a central government that is just strong enough to provide for the common defense and to defend the civil liberties of all, with the states and the people free to attend to all other issues as they saw best.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Thus, the word for today is “voluntaryism.” Voluntaryism is the idea that all human associations should be voluntary. It is an extension of the idea that humans own themselves. Voluntaryism is the belief that any initiation of aggression constitutes a non-voluntary association and an illegitimate de facto claim of ownership of another person.
Since governments often perpetuate involuntary associations, the voluntaryist assertion is that a government has no legitimate authority over any person unless that person voluntarily and explicitly agrees to delegate some specific authority, which they have over themselves, to that government. Therefore, a government cannot legitimately initiate an association in order to make a demand or collect taxes from a person without first obtaining explicit consent from that person.
Not long ago I saw a poster that read, “All government programs should be funded through GoFundMe.com” – and I concur with the sentiment. If it is important, people will donate their hard-earned funds to make it happen.
Unlike the current system of taxation, the donations would be voluntary, and the donor would only support the projects that they felt were important, and unlike taxation, they would not be forced to fund programs that they disagree with.
We do not need an all-powerful government. We do not need American military personnel involved in the internal conflicts of foreign nations. We do not need a president writing off executive orders left and right dictating to the people, or private enterprises, what they can, or cannot, or should do. We do not need more laws, because there is no law that the government will not kill you in order to enforce. Thus, when any government oversteps their consented powers, it is the responsibility for the people at large to withdraw their consent.
It is up to you, as a citizen, to take responsibility for yourself and your family, and your community, to act in concert voluntarily in order to improve your circumstances. If you can do something to improve your community, do not demand that the government do it for you, just go ahead and do it yourself. But do not forget that it is also your responsibility as a citizen to vote out any politician that knowingly violates their oath to the Constitution by voting for, or supporting, any activity that exceeds the limitations of our government as enumerated within the very Constitution that every politician swears to uphold!
(This is part two of a two-part opinion piece.)
If you read my opinion last week where I covered the 23 enumerated powers that our federal government is limited to, I also hope that you took a moment to realize how much they over-reach their authority and how much it is personally costing you in taxes to support their usurpation of authority and power.
The United States was formed when 13 individual British colonies came together in 1776 to declare themselves as free and independent states that were united in their common cause to defend their freedom. After much debate, the Continental Congress adopted the “Articles of Confederation.”
The guiding principle of the articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states, with a weak central government that received only those powers which the former colonies had recognized as belonging to their former king and the British Parliament. The Articles of Confederation as written eventually proved ineffective, and this led to the writing and adoption of our current United States Constitution, with a slightly stronger central government, but one that still preserved the independence and sovereignty of the states, as echoed in the 10th Amendment to our Constitution, which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Our federal government was never meant to be the monster that it has become.
The founding fathers of the United States; the statesmen who crafted the Declaration of Independence, our United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights; were some of the most brilliant minds to ever gather together and collaborate in the history of all mankind. Those men, “if ” they could be teleported through time from when they were still living to today, would absolutely find our current government practically unrecognizable.
Even though our United States Constitution has only been amended 27 times in its 233 years of existence, men like Jefferson, Washington, Adams, and Franklin would be shocked at the extreme bloat, overreach, inefficiency, and cost of our current government. …After all, they had just fought a war of rebellion and independence to escape the clutches of a government that wanted to tax Americans a fraction of what we the people are taxed today.
That said, I offer to you what our founding fathers intended – a central government that is just strong enough to provide for the common defense and to defend the civil liberties of all, with the states and the people free to attend to all other issues as they saw best.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Thus, the word for today is “voluntaryism.” Voluntaryism is the idea that all human associations should be voluntary. It is an extension of the idea that humans own themselves. Voluntaryism is the belief that any initiation of aggression constitutes a non-voluntary association and an illegitimate de facto claim of ownership of another person.
Since governments often perpetuate involuntary associations, the voluntaryist assertion is that a government has no legitimate authority over any person unless that person voluntarily and explicitly agrees to delegate some specific authority, which they have over themselves, to that government. Therefore, a government cannot legitimately initiate an association in order to make a demand or collect taxes from a person without first obtaining explicit consent from that person.
Not long ago I saw a poster that read, “All government programs should be funded through GoFundMe.com” – and I concur with the sentiment. If it is important, people will donate their hard-earned funds to make it happen.
Unlike the current system of taxation, the donations would be voluntary, and the donor would only support the projects that they felt were important, and unlike taxation, they would not be forced to fund programs that they disagree with.
We do not need an all-powerful government. We do not need American military personnel involved in the internal conflicts of foreign nations. We do not need a president writing off executive orders left and right dictating to the people, or private enterprises, what they can, or cannot, or should do. We do not need more laws, because there is no law that the government will not kill you in order to enforce. Thus, when any government oversteps their consented powers, it is the responsibility for the people at large to withdraw their consent.
It is up to you, as a citizen, to take responsibility for yourself and your family, and your community, to act in concert voluntarily in order to improve your circumstances. If you can do something to improve your community, do not demand that the government do it for you, just go ahead and do it yourself. But do not forget that it is also your responsibility as a citizen to vote out any politician that knowingly violates their oath to the Constitution by voting for, or supporting, any activity that exceeds the limitations of our government as enumerated within the very Constitution that every politician swears to uphold!