Liberty is a group issue

[Swordsmyth]

Liberty relates to how an individual is treated but it is a group issue, a relationship between multiple people, a castaway alone on an island can't have his rights violated or violate the rights of another.

[r3volution 3.0]

Liberty relates to how an individual is treated but it is a group issue, a relationship between multiple people, a castaway alone on an island can't have his rights violated or violate the rights of another.

A castaway alone on an island has no need for ethical rules governing interpersonal relations.

There is no possibility of any dispute over which person gets to use what resources (i.e. property rights) because there is only one person.

Throw Friday into the mix, and there suddenly arises a need for property rights.

Those rights, the prevention of the violation of which is the purpose of libertarianism, are clearly defined (and simply).

They arise through homesteading (a principle of mostly historical interest at this point) and are then transferred through voluntary exchange.

...and that's pretty much the end of the story.

No collectives involves, no cultures, no nations: just property rights being exchanged (or not) between individual human beings.

[A Son of Liberty]

I understand what you're saying, but liberty is NOT a group issue at it's core. Yes, it answers the question of how humans should interact, but liberty is a state of humanity whether there is one person on the planet or 7 billion.

I've been told that this video is too simplistic a characterization of human interaction, but I find no fault with it's assumptions and conclusions:



It's very, very simple: a person owns his life. We know this because he alone possesses the ability to breathe, to think, to act. No one else may take ownership of another human being and control their breathing, thoughts, actions. At a minimum, it is clear that the most obvious owner of one's life is oneself. So if a person owns himself, then certain things follow - he is entitled to the fruits of his justly employed efforts (efforts which do not coercively or forcibly detract from other people); he is entitled to live his life free from coercion and force, for if it is unjust to confiscate or impose upon through force or coercion the justly acquired fruits of one's labors.