By Ernest Hancock

The philosophy of liberty

In the coming weeks I intend to address many controversial issues which some may consider complex: Immigration, Military Draft, Abortion, Prohibition, Zoning, Public Transportation, Public Assistance, Taxation, Foreign Relations, Victim Disarmament laws and many others. What you’ll find is that often the root problem is the same. And I’ll offer the same solution every week for as long as I will be permitted. “Freedom’s the Answer. What’s the Question?”

I hope many of you will contact me and ask that I share the libertarian perspective on seemingly complex issues. But I thought it productive to share with you the Philosophy of Liberty you’ll find applied consistently in future essays.

The Philosophy of Liberty is based on the principle of Self-Ownership. Your life is yours and no one else’s. Even as a man of faith I know that I am the ultimate steward of God’s gift of life to me. To deny this is to imply that another person has a higher claim on my life than I do. No other person or group owns my life, nor do I own the lives of others.

For me to lose my Life is to lose my Future, to lose my Liberty is to lose my Present and for me to lose the product of my Life and Liberty is to lose that portion of my Past that produced it. My Property. Property is the fruit of my labor and is the product of my time, energy and talents that produced it, and it is mine.

When I trade my property with another, it is by voluntary mutual consent. We enter into the transaction because we each are of the opinion that we will be gain from the exchange, or we wouldn’t proceed. At times some people use Force or Fraud to take from others without their consent. The initiation of Force or Fraud to take Life is Murder, to take Liberty is Slavery, and to take Property is Theft. It remains the same whether the force is initiated by an individual acting alone, by many acting together, or even by “officials” with robes or shiny badges and guns.

You have a right to protect your Life, Liberty and justly acquired Property from the forceful aggression of others, and you may also ask others to help you defend your rights. But you do not have the right to initiate Force or Fraud against the Life, Liberty or Property of others. Thus you have no right to designate some person to initiate force against others on your behalf.

You have the right to seek leaders for yourself, but you have no right to impose rulers on others, no matter how they were selected. They are only human and have no rights or claims superior to any other humans. Regardless of the imaginative labels for their behavior, no officials have the right to Murder, Enslave or Steal. Your action on behalf of others or their action on behalf of you is virtuous only when it is derived from voluntary mutual consent. This is the basis for a truly free society. It is not only the most practical and humanitarian foundation for human action, it is also the most ethical.

Evil does not arise only from evil people, but also from good people who tolerate the initiation of force as a means to their own ends. In this manner, good people have empowered evil throughout history. But something wonderful has happened. We can now communicate the Philosophy of Liberty directly with each other without filters or barriers. Great cultural changes are coming, and I am very excited about it.

Each week I will apply this philosophy to the most contentious issues you are willing to send my way. I’m ready, and I think you are too.

In mid-2002, International Society for Individual Liberty director Ken Schoolland teamed up with Canadian libertarian Kerry Pearson to produce a 10-minute computer-animation entitled the “Philosophy of Liberty.” The text was taken from a prologue to Ken’s now-famous book, The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible. The animation can also be viewed from Ernest Hancock’s 1100 KFNX radio program web page at ernesthancock.com. “Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock” can be heard weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. Contact Ernest at ernest@ernesthancock.com.