Small update today: A short draft of a piece I’m currently writing and pondering. a manifesto à la The Sharon Statement and The Port Huron Statement.
1. When a policy requires reformation, we are reformers.
2. If an institution necessitates abolition, we are abolitionists.
3. If tradition or a societal structure preserves voluntary and peaceful action while promoting a free society, we are preservationists.
4. When the intellectual paradigm inhibits and harms society, we are revolutionists.
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1. We are not bomb-throwing anarchists bent on the destruction of society (although some of us are anarchists).
2. We do not protect the status quo when it harms the liberty of individuals and we are not corporate shills (the status quo is not completely good nor completely bad, and we are pro-market, not pro-business).
3. We do not want only a market to guide societal interaction and individual motivation (some of us reject property altogether).
4. We are not selfish, callous and neglectful of others (we recognize that impoverished individuals and minority groups have been harmed more by the State than anyone else).
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1. We understand that virtue and equality only develop when they are rooted in liberty. Our actions speak louder than empty promises of those in power, and we reject the political system as an acceptable means to dictate our desired ends.
2. We understand that individual and community empowerment fulfill desires and resolve issues better than any centralized approach. If an idea cannot persuade voluntary adoption and relies on coercion for its implementation, it is not a good idea.
3. If we fail to defend voluntary and peaceful actions of individuals and collectives with whom we disagree, we restrict our own liberty. Liberty cannot be severed into an economic and personal realm, as such a notion denies its indivisibility and allows individuals to control other individuals.
4. Our tenets are those of voluntary action and decentralization of power. We cannot help an individual who rejects our help, no matter how strongly our morals compel us to try, and we comprehend that no individual can be entrusted to wisely exert unlimited power over others.