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Personal Sovereignty

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This essay was first completed on Thursday, April 14, 2005 and was most recently revised on Thursday, October 18, 2012.

This document is approximately 747 words long.
 

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Personal Sovereignty

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The presumption today is that all human beings are inherently subject to the jurisdiction of some government.  However, I believe that every human being is potentially a free and sovereign individual, superior in status to a government.  Such an individual doesn't have any inherent obligation to any government.  He cannot be legitimately compelled by any court or by any legislature.  Only through its institutions of diplomacy can any government legitimately deal with such a free and sovereign individual.  Any such individual is free to enter into any contract and even to voluntarily submit himself to the jurisdiction of a government, if that's his wish.  He's responsible for disclosure and performance in his contracts.  He can deal honestly with honest people and seek remedy from those who deal dishonestly with him.  He's responsible for the consequences of his behavior.  He can expect hostile or dishonest behavior on his part to establish a cause of action against him.  He's free to meet force with force and kindness with kindness.  He's free to try to defend himself.  He's free to try to defend anything in which he has an interest or anyone in whom he has an interest.  He must manage his own survival and his own well-being.  To successfully coexist with governments or with other sovereign individuals, his behavior should best be guided by courtesy, humility, and integrity.  The regulation of his behavior by any government is neither necessary, appropriate, nor even tolerable.

It's been more than 25 years since I began to formally divest myself of obligations to government.  Lacking any handy examples, I had to invent the process as I went along.  As I proceeded, and as the powers of government continued to grow, my life became increasingly inconvenient.  Today, I cannot own real property, travel on most forms of "public" transportation, own or operate a business, buy medical insurance, open a bank account, have a job, or do any of the other things that have been restricted to only people who have the government's permission to do such things and who can present valid government documentation to prove that permission.  That kind of pervasive control of the people, more than anything else, is an indictment of the present condition and behavior of government and a validation of the doctrine of personal sovereignty.  That is, a government should never have the power to force an honest, healthy, and competent individual into a position of dependence upon and subservience to its institutions.  It should never have the power to restrict any honest, healthy, and competent individual from consensual participation in any kind of relationship or activity.  A government that does those things to its citizens might be legitimately within the scope of its constitution.  A government that does those things to a free and sovereign individual is a despotism, exercising


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Personal Sovereignty

only the brute power of a street gang.  It doesn't have any legitimate authority over a free and sovereign human being.

The fact is that, today, I couldn't survive at all as a free and sovereign human being without the support of sympathetic family members, friends, and associates.  That alone is sufficient to condemn the present government as a gang of gestapo thugs.

I've sometimes doubted the advisability and, lately, even the viability of the sovereign status that I've achieved.  However, I've never regretted having achieved it.  As a consequence of my status, I don't have any obligations whatsoever to any government.  I'm not owned by any government.  I own myself.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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