What I will attempt to do in this series is lay out, in the simplest manner I can, the justification for the peaceful and complete abolishment of government as it currently exists. I will show how government is unethical and how every “good” the government accomplishes can be done ethically using the mechanics of the free market.
I am a believer that the definitions of words are very important and that when you use words like government, ethical, free market, etc. a definition is required. I will be defining each of them as they arise in my discussion.
Let me start with a claim: Ethics are subjective.
My support for the above claim:
Just like when defining any word or concept, we must agree on the definition of the word in order to move forward using that word. We must have the same frame of reference or else we would be talking about two separate things. If I see an apple and say that the color of the apple is called “red” and you say that “red” is what the color of the sky is called, then all rational conversations between us about things that are red will and should end in confusion and disagreement. The same can be said of the words good or evil, immoral or moral, ethical or unethical. Even more so as these words and concept are much less concrete than the color of the apple or the sky.
When it comes to “ethics”, I’d say a generally agreeable definition is a set of principles that can and should be applied to human action. These principles being a set of rules that when violated generate an “unethical” action and when adhered to generate an “ethical” action. Now, if that is not your definition of ethics then we disagree on the foundation of this discussion and therefore will disagree on all of our conclusions.
So how do we decided on this “set of rules?” Just like our definition of “red”, we must agree on a definition or categorization of an action as “good” or “bad” – “ethical” or “unethical.” The number of different actions a human can take is vast and is limited only by time and creativity. To create the set of rules, we have to find a common attribute of all actions and determine a binary qualifier so that all actions can be vetted against our qualifier and categorized as “ethical” or “unethical.” The founding of a common attribute and the binary qualifier are subjective decisions made by the individual. Once we determine this attribute and this qualifier we can then make objective decisions about the ethics of an action. If a large amount of people agree with you on this set of ethics, then you are seen as justified in using that attribute and qualifier to form a framework of ethics. For example, most people have subjectively decided that murdering an innocent person is unethical. So much so, that we write and enforce objective laws that determine “guilt” and an enforcement policy against such action. However, the original decision that murder is unethical was a subjective one. This can be extrapolated across all actions. The determination that an action is ethical is a completely subjective decision made by an individual.
In the next article in this series I will attempt to determine a generally agreeable universal attribute and a binary qualifier than can be used to set up a framework of ethics. I will then use this framework to examine actions of individuals and eventually the institution of government. Make sure to follow to see the next article. Comment below to let me know what you think, agree with, disagree with.
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Check out Episode 2 here :
Episode 2