Today we will discuss the basics of how we interact with each other in a civilized way. These ways of interacting can be summarized by three entities: Rights, Privileges and Responsibilities.

Let’s start with simple standard definitions.

• Rights are all the things we can do without having to ask permission to anybody.
• Privileges are things that we are allowed to do because we have received permission from somebody.
• Responsibilities are all the things that we are told that we must do.

Those are the definitions. They are simple and powerful, but flawed.

In order to understand why these definitions are flawed,  we need to understand the motives behind those definitions; where the flaws come from, what makes them tick.  So, without further due, to task.

 

RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES

The concept of a “right” is based on another concept: sovereignty.

The logic is simple. If Santiago is sovereign it means that there is nobody above Santiago to ask permission to. Santiago is it! He is the supreme boss. Therefore, if Santiago wishes to do something it is entirely up to Santiago to decide to do it or not. For Santiago, this is his right.

A privilege, on the other hand, is a permission from somebody with a right, to somebody that does not have this right.

If Irina owns a car, it is her right to use it or not. Irina may loan the car to Adjoa, so that he may use it. However, Adjoa uses the car entirely at Irina’s discretion. For example, Irina may allow Adjoa to use the car Saturdays afternoon between 4 and 6 PM, but not this Saturday. For no reason at all. Irina does not have to explain why she allowed Adjoa to use the car and then she changed her mind. It is her car and Adjoa has no rights to it. Literally!

Rights cannot be revoked, privileges can.

Rights cannot be granted, privileges can.

Notice the differences?

All current Political Theories (Left, Right and anything in between) have some sort of list or charter of rights. Some have a constitution, some have laws, some have some other type of document. But they all have them. Then, of course, they have rights that the government creates out of thin air. And their regulations, also created out of thin air. And then we have the modifications to those laws and regulations that judges make to those rights, again, out of thin air. And then we have the interpretations that lawyers assign to those rights and try to enforce. And on and on. Messy? Confusing? We also think so. Where the wheel of rights ends nobody knows…

The point we are trying to make is simple. Most rights, as understood by current Political Theories, do not originate in their respective political axioms, but are subjective add-ons, glued or bolted to their key documents. This is necessarily so because they are all subjective.

And where does subjectivity comes from? From one of the most stupid notions ever devised: what’s mine is mine unless society decides otherwise.

In other words, our property rights are not absolute. They are dependent upon the wishes of something called “society” that has no real existence but plenty of enforcers: politicians.

There is another way of looking at this: you will not steal unless by majority vote.

And since a vote could be called to decide on pretty much anything, then anything goes. As anything goes, so go your rights. Therefore, a list compiling your “current” rights is necessary because tomorrow they will change!

 

RESPONSIBILITIES

What about responsibilities?

Responsibilities are all those limitations that politicians place in lists (laws and regulations) and we are supposed to live by. Laws are written specifically to limit our rights and privileges. That is their sole purpose.

Think about it. If our rights were absolute, this is, if there were no limits, laws would not be necessary. But because politicians want to place limits on our rights, they need laws. This creates a problem. As those limits are arbitrary and subjective, there is no way to deduce them from axioms. Therefore, they need to be listed. Which leads to another problem. As responsibilities do not need to be consistent with each other, they end up contradicting each other most of the time. Which requires further clarifications and regulations and rules and debates and judicial decisions and… and… and… See our point?

In other words, the entire judicial or legal system, world-wide, is a giant, subjective mess.

Standard current Political Theories will tell you that you can only have rights as long as there are responsibilities limiting those rights. However, as we have seen above, as the rights are arbitrary, so are the responsibilities. Leaving us with a clear conclusion: it’s all a gigantic mess.

But precisely because it is a mess, politicians have added this diabolical rule to it: your lack of legal knowledge is no defense.

Which is the largest hypocritical achievement known to humans. You are bound by rules that you did not agree to, you do not understand and you don’t even know they exist. This is something unique among human relations. Nothing else known to humans has sunk this low.

 

IN AN ABSOLUTE AUSTRO-LIBERTARIAN SYSTEM

Rights, Responsibilities and Privileges

We have seen how rights, responsibilities and privileges are defined by current standard Political Theories. But what about in the AL System?

The Master Contract tells us that all our rights to property are absolute. We can do with our property as we wish. But the MC does not disclose any other right. Why? Because it’s not necessary.

It is quite simple. The MC is a voluntary contract. This is, you, me and everybody else wishing to live according to MC rules, accept them voluntarily. This  means we all accept that property rights, yours, mine and everybody else’s, are absolute.

All my rights are therefore described: I have the right to do anything I wish with my property. Period. I don’t need a list of rights because I don’t have any others.

What about privileges? The MC states that relations between people are ruled by voluntary contracts. This spells out all my privileges. If there is no voluntary contract, I don’t have any other privilege! Period. Yes, it’s that simple.

What about responsibilities. Simple. All relations between  people are ruled by voluntary contracts. If I voluntarily agree to a contract, I am responsible to fulfill the contract and any responsibilities it may contain. There are no other responsibilities. What other people may have contracted amongst themselves, does not bind me or make me responsible in any other manner whatsoever.

There is no mythical society that exercises any power whatsoever on my property. Therefore there is no need for further clarifications about rights, responsibilities and privileges in an AL System.

Furthermore, since contracts are voluntary and agreed personally, contracts will have a great deal of variation in them. This is good because we are all different. We all want different things. Different contracts provide us with the opportunity to customize our needs.

In contrast, in a standard political system, the most utilized rule is: one size fits all. We are under the oppressing thumb of politicians and their laws. We are all “equal” under the law! What a joke! Of course we are not! Why should we accept other people’s laws? The truth is that we should not. The AL System gives us this chance.

In an AL System rights and responsibilities balance each other automatically. There is no need for laws or regulations. It is quite simple. If Fien interacts with Josue’s property in any manner not permitted by a voluntary contract, then Fien is automatically responsible for all damages. Period.

This produces a strange effect. People will automatically tend to respect each other (because our body is our property) and each other’s properties! In other words, an AL System is heavily geared towards producing cultures of personal responsibility!

In an AL System, we don’t have to be told what our responsibilities are. We know them automatically because we know if we have a contract or not and what the conditions may or may not be. We abide by those conditions or we do not interact with other people’s properties out of our own best interest. This behaviour comes from iinside as opposed to being an external, artificial imposition described in laws and regulations.

Where do Rights Originate From?

There is one more thing we need to discuss. Where do our MC rights originate from? Are we born with those rights? Did God gave them to us? A king? A government?

None of the above.

Consider this. If we were born in absolute isolation, then we would naturally be able to do whatever we wanted to do. There would be no other authority to ask permission to, simply because there would be nobody else. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that we are born sovereign. All those rights are not given to us but we just happen to have them naturally.

However, we do not live in total isolation. We live in a world populated by other people. Therefore, in order to have a system that provides the maximum economic benefit and maximum freedom to all of us, we enter into a voluntary agreement with everybody else. This agreement is the Master Contract. We can do this precisely because we are born sovereign.

Therefore the rights described in the MC are contractual rights. We all agree voluntarily to abide by those rights. They originate in our mutual voluntary agreement. As such they can be revoked under very specific circumstances. The MC is not a Constitution, is a contract.

In summary, in an AL System rights, responsibilities and privileges are very simple, clear and easy to follow. They balance automatically and do not require other laws and regulations.

The final choice is yours: bureaucracy or clarity.

You decide.

Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.