The North Star



This is Michael Berger with SolutionsForLiberty.com.  In Ancient times people were able to travel long distances at night without getting lost due to the North Star.  If someone wanted to go north they simply faced the North Star and walked towards it.

Today in 2021 most of us liberty-minded people are confused about our north star.  Most of us would say that our central guiding principle, our north star, is the Non-Aggression Principle.

The Non-Aggression Principle or NAP is basically the principle of live and let live, of never forcing anyone to do anything against their will.  But the NAP does not encourage or require any positive action; it only tells you what not to do.  Some people even go so far as refer to the NAP as the Non-Action Principle.

The Non-Aggression Principle is more a result than a cause.  It's the natural result you get when you have a group of sane, reasonable, and rational people.  It is not however a means of converting a tyrannical country into a free and voluntary society.

Believing that the Non-Aggression Principle is the North Star causes people to over focus on it.  This tends to result in a lot of thought and a lot of talk, feelings of moral superiority, and very little action.

Confusion over the North Star is nothing new.  In the night sky there are thousands of stars visible to the naked eye once you get a little ways out from the city.  The most common mistake people make about the North Star is to assume that it is the brightest star in the sky.  There are in fact dozens of stars in the night sky that appear bigger and brighter than the North Star.

The interesting thing about the North Star, the thing that makes it unique, is that it stays in the same place in the night sky.  Throughout the course of the night all other stars swirl around the North Star.

If you want to find the north star when it comes to liberty all you have to do is find the one central law or principle that all other principles revolve around.

If you were to look at the night sky and mistake some other star for the North Star, if you were to walk towards that star all night long, not only would you not be heading to your destination, you wouldn't even be walking in a straight line; you'd be walking in circles.

The reason following the Non-Aggression Principle is getting us nowhere is simply because it's not the North Star.

The core principle upon which human rights revolve is the law of self-ownership.  The law of self-ownership simply states that everyone is the rightful owner of his or her self.

This law is an absolute and unalterable law of the universe.  Like the law of gravity it cannot be voted on or annulled, it simply is.

The Non-Aggression Principle actually comes from the law of self-ownership; the reason it is wrong to initiate force against another person is because it's a violation of the law of self-ownership.

I am the owner of myself.   I own both my mind and my body.  I am the full and absolute and only owner, I own 100% of my shares.  I am mine.  I belong to me.  I belong to myself.

Because I own both my mind and my mouth I retain the freedom of speech.  I also retain, and shall retain, the freedom of expression and the right to publish my ideas.

Your rights too come from the law of self-ownership.  You are yours.  You belong to yourself.  You are your property.  As owner you have the right to protect your property; the right of self-defense.

The rights provided by the law of self-ownership are as innumerable as the stars in the sky.  They include rights we rarely think about like the right to sing and the right to dance.

So let's follow the North Star shall we?  It will make it a lot easier for us to get where we are going.