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The Ethics Of Liberty - Knowledge, True And False

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  The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard Rothbard continues to analyze individual rights as property rights in order to explain what rights truly exist.  In this chapter he applies that framework to knowledge.  This isn't as straightforward as dealing with things that are basic physical property because even though knowledge, thoughts, lies, and slander are not physical things, they can still have physical consequences. He starts by analyzing the situation when someone lies about another person.  Does Smith have the right to lie about Jones?  Looking strictly at property gives a clear answer.  Smith owns his own mind, his mouth, and a smartphone.  Therefore he has the right to use his own property to lie.  He can speak, send out a letter, announce over a radio station he owns, etc.  Smith has done something immoral but his action should not illegal.  In general, it is legal to lie in our day and time, so Rothbard isn't saying anything controversial here. However, he applies
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The Ethics Of Liberty - "Human Rights" As Property Rights

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  The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard                  "human rights, when not put in terms of property rights, turn out to                 be vague and contradictory, causing liberals to weaken those rights                 on behalf of 'public policy' or the 'public good.' " I expect you have heard a variety of criticisms anytime you have spoken up for freedom or individual rights.  Those criticisms usually consist of claims that no rights are absolute.  One common example is you don't have the right to swing your fists in the space taken up by someone else's face.  Or they claim you should give up some of your own rights so that others will feel free to do what they want.  I call this the, "if I want to go to a concert then everyone else there must wear a mask so I won't get a respiratory virus", example. Rothbard addresses these criticisms by framing all "human" rights as property rights.  By doing so he shows that natu
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The Ethics Of Liberty - Children And Rights

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  I have to admit up front, this chapter contains my biggest disagreement with Rothbard so far.  In "Children And Rights", he starts with discussing the rights of parents to abort and neglect their children before partially redeeming himself by focusing his searchlight back onto government's aggression against children and parents. He starts the chapter describing his philosophy on abortion.  I disagree out of the gate.  Uncharacteristically he provides no logical or natural law basis for his foundation.  Instead, he throws out an assertion and starts applying his normal deduction atop this faulty starting point.                 "[with] birth as the beginning of a live human being possessing natural rights...                     While birth is indeed the proper line of demarcation, the usual formation makes                    birth an arbitrary dividing line, and lacks sufficient rational groundwork                    in the theory of self ownership." Everythin
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Make Supplication

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I had the opportunity this morning to introduce the subject of supplication during a prayer and worship service at church.  We prayed in four sections centered on the acronym A-C-T-S:  adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.  It helps focus peoples thoughts on what to pray about and makes sure that different aspects of prayer are included. I briefly discussed two passages of scripture to explain what supplication is and how to apply it.  Here is what I said: In the last section we will pray through the 'S' in ACTS.  The 'S' stands for Supplication, which means to make requests or ask for things you need.  Let's prepare our minds for supplication by listening to a few verses.  The first one is from Philippians. Philippians 4 4  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5  Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
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The Ethics Of Liberty - Punishment And Proportionality

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  The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard Rothbard continues to deduce how to make a free and just society.  In this section he explains how justice systems in the modern state have been turned upside down and how to set them right side up again.  It all revolves around the saying "let the punishment fit the crime."  The important question is what punishment actually does fit. He starts by setting up three guard rails.  The first being the idea that a criminal loses his rights to the extent and in the way he has violated the rights of another person.  The second is a continuation of the first. Punishment must be proportional.  A maximum limit must be put on that criminal's punishment, which is up to an equal degree of his crime.  It is not an average or a floor but a ceiling.  The third is that the victim or plaintiff doesn't have to exact the maximum penalty.  He can require a portion of it or no punishment at all.  No law or politician has the right to force him e
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The Ethics Of Liberty - Self Defense

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  The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard Natural rights, ownership, and criminality have all been defined and analyzed.  Now Rothbard focuses his attention on the topic of self defense.  He explains its justification and its proper boundaries.  You will see that his analysis from 40 years ago gives you a clear understanding regarding many things being discussed today. Previously in the book, Rothbard explained why individuals have a right to their own life, liberty, and property.  Now, he covers the ethical responses when someone tries to violate those rights.                 "If every man has the absolute right to his justly-held property,  it then follows                     that he as the right to keep that property- to defend  it by violence against                      violent invasion." An individual can rightly defend himself alone or have  employees or volunteers come to his aid.  Common examples are things like private security, home alarm systems, militias, posse
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The Ethics Of Liberty - Land Monopoly, Past And Present

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  The Ethics Of Liberty by Murray Rothbard Chapter 11 takes a deeper look at the subject of feudalism and shows its relevance in the current day.  Rothbard also applies ideas from his chapter on criminality in describing to how to right the wrongs of modern day feudalism.  For reference, feudalism is defined as " continuing aggression by titleholder of land against peasants engaged in transforming the soil. "  To that Rothbard adds the concept of "land engrossing" and calls the combined practices land monopoly.  Land engrossing involves keeping potential new owners out of raw land.  Governments act in this role in order to grant privileges to specific individuals or groups.  In other words they decide who gets to mix their labor with land in order to transform it into their legitimate property. The first example of land monopoly in the US that comes to my mind is the settlement of the Unassigned lands of Oklahoma in 1889.  The US federal government cleared the land
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The Ethics Of Liberty - The Problem Of Land Theft

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  The Ethics Of Liberty  by Murray Rothbard After defining criminality broadly in the previous chapter, Rothbard focuses his attention to land as property and its unique importance.                 "A particularly important application of our theory of property titles is                      the case of landed property.  For one thing, land is a fixed quotal portion                      of the earth, and therefore the ground land endures virtually permanently." Land property is unique because the supply is so inflexible.  Practically none more will be created but neither will it be destroyed.  For these same reasons, George Bernard Shaw started his argumentation for socialism with the ownership of landed.  His argument is not very convincing because it wasn't built upon a solid understanding of natural law and natural rights.  His used a shallow historical analysis and whiny list of grievances.  It is internally logical, but it should be easy to identify his assumptions
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