Government

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redhawk41

New member
"Government is voluntarily established by free individuals through a willful act of contract, individuals rationally consenting to limit their own freedom and to obey civil authority in order to have public protection of their natural rights."

At what point does voluntary establishment become unwilling institution?
At what point does the willful act of contract become forced compliance?
At what point does rational consent become illogical carte blanche?

Or perhaps this idea of government is flawed?
 
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tyme

Administrator
"Government is voluntarily established by free individuals through a willful act of contract, individuals rationally consenting to limit their own freedom and to obey civil authority in order to have public protection of their natural rights."
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Not possible. Just about every habitable location on earth is under the control of a society/government. If a child is born and doesn't agree with principles of any existing society, the only unqualified freedom that person can achieve is mental.
 
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redhawk41

New member
tyme, on the lines of chicken vs egg:

Was there government before human civilization? If so then rational consent to said government would be impossible.

Or did government rise out of human civilization as what Thomas Paine termed a "neccessary evil"?

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." - Thomas Paine (1737–1809). Common Sense. 1776.

I contend that we as humans of free will and conscious are not bound by the man-made institutions of government, but willingly submit as a pittance to mutual security, companionship, and cooperation.

Can government exist independant of humans? Can humans exist independant of government? If the former is no and the latter is yes it then follows that we as humans must submit for any government to be effective. Otherwise government will constrain us as gravity holds us in its inescapable grasp, which I don't see as the case.

If one has willingly submitted, one can also willingly disengaged. Consequences are of course a different matter.
 
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Hugh Damright

New member
I believe it is a principle of free government that a person is free to choose whether or not to participate ... so, a State passing a law that no Citizen could leave the State (or the US passing a law that no State could leave the Union) would seem to be stepping out of free government and into a forced/unwilling instititution.
 
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