You’ve heard of the non-aggression principle, otherwise known as the ZAP or the NAP. A lot of freedomistas regard it as the golden rule for a free society.
Well, Michael W. Dean and Neema Vedadi have now coined a phrase to define its opposite: The aggression principle. That’s the rule behind all government, of every type, everywhere. We all know what it is. We’ve been talking about it for a long time. Why hasn’t anybody ever named it?
(Michael and Neema call this podcast “one for the ages.”)
I’d say it has been named all along—govern-ment. How can any person govern another except with physical aggression?
While the Aggression Principle may drive government, it doen’t follow that ONLY government uses it. Bullies, management (at all levels), education, religion, science, all frequently employ _some degree_ of the Aggression Principle to get their way and direct the thought process to the “correct” conclusion.
A lot of good stuff in there, a lot to absorb. I sort of got lost with NAP 2, and will have to re-listen for better understanding.
In discussing the Catholic Church’s influence (about 1:04 hrs), it was stated that “the Church acted more like the State at that time”. I think the State had _less_ influence at that time, the Church WAS the State. Possibly the States brought the Church’s _modus operandi_ into the modern world as they started to divvy up the land globally.
(BTW, the Catholic Church wasn’t any harder on radical thinking than some of the Protestant churches. While racks and thumbscrews are torturous and barbaric, pillaring, dunking [waterboarding, anyone?], and burning are no better.)
Great! Government is based on The Aggression Principle!
Maybe that’s why everything government does is a “War on ___” (poverty, drugs, terror, guns, etc).
That is, of course, just another way of saying “Monopoly on the use of force.”
jcard21 and Pat – excellent points.
The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit – The teaser here is good as a teaser, but it’s just that. It doesn’t really explain what we are going for. At least click on the link and read the short show notes, if not listen to the episode, for enough info to have a real comment. The folks who made the “excellent point” comments certainly did.
MWD
Good one, Michael, until you guys got to the bit about masturbation. 🙂
Paul, it really wouldn’t be a Freedom Feens midweek show if we dropped mad science but didn’t follow it without going full-on Beavis and Butthead.
That’s our version of being “fair and balanced.”
🙂
MWD