In FREEDOM, Forever
The Universal Declaration of the Individual
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a person to dissolve the political bands which have chained them in subservience to a non-consensual government and to assume among their fellow humans, the separate and equal station to which their self ownership entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to the separation.
I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all rational beings are created equal, whether endowed by nature or their creator, they possess free will, the ability to conceptualize and actualize a preferred state, and a capacity for agency, self determination, and reciprocity. A respect for which requires mutual agreement to hold one’s consent sacrosanct and inviolate. — That from this respect flow unalienable rights, among which are Life, Liberty, and Self Ownership. — That to secure these rights, no government, no person or group of people which violate the consent of another, may be suffered to exist. — That whenever any such entity becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Person to withdraw their consent, defend against, and abolish it.
Mankind’s ability to suffer injustice, seemingly infinite when faced with danger, nourishes well these governments that stand to attack me for mine own safety. Their centuries long histories of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably more involuntary power evinces their true nature of absolute despotism. It is my right to throw off such government, to choose to suffer their evils no longer, and to provide new guards for my future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of myself; and such is now the necessity which constrains me to abolish their former systems of involuntary government. The history of these governments is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over me and my property. In evidence of this, let the following Facts be submitted to a candid world; that some of the tyrannical evils I have suffered under be known to all:
They have forbidden me to freely and peacefully associate with and disassociate from other humans of my choosing in whatever means I deem appropriate, both in business and matrimony.
They have ignored and trampled down my consent on all matters in which I may find myself the minority or the sole dissenter; affording no capacity to opt not be a part of their edicts.
They, absent any existing victim, as a matter of course, threaten, accost, extort, rob, injure, and even murder innocent humans where no damaged party is to be found.
They, in the name of protecting children, do frequently intrude on their childhoods and even kidnap them from their parents and homes without severe cause, giving them to strangers, and leaving little recourse to their rightful caretakers.
They have twisted the good nature of the very people capable of helping others by conducting a mass extortion upon the productive, and claiming to do so in those victims’ names. Their “welfare” uses the resources of some to buy political power from others while actually helping very few; all in violation of individual consent.
They, on pain of loss of livelihood, force involuntary association between myself and those that would employ me, those that would be employed by me, and those that would form unions, or choose to remain free agents. This intolerable force, they make a matter of course for employment relationships.
They, being unsatisfied in their tyranny here where I live, march around the globe grinding up human life as if it were valueless, their militaries creating new enemies that hate me instead of them, and then in the ultimate insult claim that all they do is for my safety and freedom.
They, having the hubris to place upon me rules regarding certain peaceful actions and property, make “sins” out of them; punishing, robbing, caging, and even murdering any who dare defy their improper fiat. Their every prohibition without a victim, every ban without damaged property; all infringements upon the right of one to own oneself.
They, through the extortion that they name taxation, have so thoroughly forcefully interfered in every single peaceful interaction and transaction taken through the course of time that proper restitution has become utterly incalculable, the damages and the criminal violations of sovereignty nearing infinite. My mere existence indebts me to no one.
They, unable to be other than despotic, falsely claim rightful control over my ability to peacefully travel the world. They will attack me for attempting to do so without their permission or for using means outside their approved channels.
They forcefully prevent me from obtaining security, safety, and protection outside their monopoly of abusive and dangerous law enforcers.
They establish rules by fiat that control my trade associations with those outside arbitrary lines on a map and euphemize and reframe theft as “tariffs”.
They have captured and do wrongfully control things so intimate in their nature so as to boggle the mind. The education of our very own children isn’t even free from or safe from their violent intrusions and forced oversight.
They, having no self-restraint or decency, have a list of substances for which, if I peacefully place inside or around my person, they will attack, rob, cage, or murder me. To add insult to vicious injury, the law enforcers that mete out the se inhumane punishments are touted as heroes.
Touting self-proclaimed higher purposes, they routinely, in the open and without remorse, do capture and steal property of peaceful people in the name of community through euphemisms for evil they call “eminent domain” and “asset forfeiture”.
Through controls upon the very earth itself, they have managed little other than the plundering of the seas, the ravaging of the coasts, the destruction of the forests, and, while proclaiming their unending intentions to the opposite, the continued defiling of the very air we breathe. While failing to achieve their stated goals they have retarded the progress that free commerce and innovation offer peaceful individuals.
They, so detailed in their control over my life, rob and attack me for using my own resources to create structures on my own property without submitting to their approval, to their snakes nest of rules for how it should be done, and paying those they force to license themselves to inspect my work once it is done.
They listen to my private conversations, they spy on my private communications, they hijack devices I own without limit or recourse. My expectation of privacy is completely disregarded.
They capture entire professions such that I cannot obtain vital services of doctors, lawyers, professors, electricians, plumbers, optometrists — or even that as simple as a barber — that does not bow before licensing, review, and controlling boards of the government, interfering constantly in what should be unfettered and unbiased opinions and labor I wish to pay for.
Finally, even their system for resolving disputes about their laws and their accusations of crimes is an utter failure by any measure. Justice is far too expensive and even when properly funded still rarely found. They use threats of extreme punishment to bargain for fast capitulations admitting even false guilt. Worse still, while preventing me from choosing another system of justice, theirs grants de facto immunity to their own agents, law enforcers, politicians, and other friends of the court, even when they stand accused of the most heinous crimes against humanity, murder and rape are no exception.
In every stage of these Oppressions I have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; My repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A ruler, by definition, may find no free people under their rule, and no government lacking my consent is fit nor just in their power.
Nor have I been wanting in attentions to those that still support this government. I have informed them that their control violates my consent. I have warned them that their legislature bears no rightful jurisdiction over me. I have reminded them of the nature of my freedom and right to exist without violent controls being placed upon me. I have appealed to their sense of justice and magnanimity, and I have begged them to exempt me from their usurpations, without demanding that they disband their own way of conducting themselves, which constantly interfere in my connections and associations. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. I must therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces my separation, and hold them, as I hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
I, therefore, being the sole proprietor of my mind and body, appealing to the rational minds of the world for the rectitude of my intentions, do, in my name, and by my sovereign authority, solemnly publish and declare, that this person is, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent, that I am absolved of all allegiance to this government and any other involuntary system or structure of control and regulation, and that all political connection between myself and the state, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent person, I have full Power to protect myself using necessary means, contract with others, establish commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent people may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, I agree and pledge that by my Life, my Fortune, and my Sacred Honor I will hold sacrosanct the agency, consent, and property of others, likewise expecting, requiring, and demanding the same be afforded me.
I Own Myself.
I Lead Myself.