March 06, 2006

We can get so tangled up in semantics and belief systems that we lose sight of the core issues. There are thousands of people writing articles, leading organizations, writing books and making movies, all trying to express their ideas about life and how best to order it. Most of them don't want to hurt anyone and all of them believe that their ideas for our lives are "for our own good" in some way. But I don't see or hear many of them asking the most crucial questions.

Who owns your life? Really?

Strictly speaking, ownership means control, so if you owned your entire life you would be the only one who controls it. The same would be true for everyone else, so you would have no right to attempt control of other's lives. Doing that is called aggression. So, if you really owned your own life, you would control everything your body did, what your mind thought, and you would be responsible for the consequences of those actions and thoughts yourself. You would also recognize the same ownership and responsibility in every other person.

Now, thinking over this definition, who owns your life?

Does someone else tell you what to eat, drink, wear, drive and how? Don't be confused by the obvious choices you have. These are a narrow range of options given to you by the real "owner," and everything else is "illegal" or - for some things - you must pay tribute (call it a bribe even) to one of the owner's henchmen for "permission" to engage in an otherwise illegal activity! Try medicine, for example.

You don't think so? You have heard of the FDA, DMV, BATF and all the other wonderful guardians the owner has hired to run your life.

And mine.

Here is another one of the core questions. Who owns your property - the things you produce and the things you buy with the proceeds of trade with others? Your property is an extension of your life. Remember that ownership is control. If someone else can force you to give up control of something you "own," you don't own it anymore. When individuals do this we call it robbery. When governments do this we call it taxes. How is this different? Does it matter whether or not the robber spends the swag on something "good," or gives it to charity?

My last question is the most complex. The true owner of our lives and property is a conglomerate of other people that some of us have "elected" for that purpose. We call it government, and most people do not even question its purpose or its actual affect on our lives, aside from demanding that it do more and more of what is obviously harmful to everyone's self ownership. Having lost sight altogether of our responsibility for our lives and property, they expect government to keep them safe from other people and the consequences of their own decisions and actions! Is this what we want? I certainly don't.

Who really owns your life? Wouldn't you like to find out if you'd be better off if you did? Here are some very good places to start the process of discovery.

Self ownership essay: http://www.mises.org/rothbard/ethics/eight.asp

The Ludwig von Mises Institute: http://www.mises.org/

What about the "poor?" - Reinventing America: http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=289

Advocates for Self-government: http://www.self-gov.org/home.shtml

These will lead you to many others.

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Medication "Abuse" - By Government

Thanksgiving Day, 2004

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"The Black Arrow" By Vin Suprynowicz
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