MISSION:
The mission of the Liberty Round Table is to eradicate institutionalized aggression.
The initiation of the use of force is wrong, but will always be a part of the human condition. What we, the Knights of Non-Aggression*, have pledged our Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honors to strive against are the twin misperceptions that such aggression is acceptable when perpetrated by groups and that such aggression is necessary for the maintenance of a stable social order. ALL initiation of force against the unwilling is immoral and tyrannical--no matter how impassioned and seemingly laudable its justifications, nor whether it is called "democracy", "Communism", "fascism", or "totalitarianism".
*Information on the Knights of Non-Aggression can be found in the section "What We Do".
DEFINITIONS:
1] The LRT is a group of friends who share the goal of living in a truly free society.
1a] The LRT is not a club, corporation, business concern, or fraternal organization. The LRT does not have members, is not exclusive, and has no criteria that must be satisfied in order to "join". One need not be a Knight of Non-Aggression to associate with the LRT.
2] A government (or state) is an organization of individual people that claims to have the authority to exercise a monopoly on the use of institutionalized aggression (tyranny) over a certain geographic region. Government is force, the state is organized aggression.
PRINCIPLES:
1] The Liberty Round Table recognizes that all people are, by nature, free.
1a] That which makes a person unique and valuable--the individual mind--cannot be enslaved without a person's decision to be intimidated by whatever threat or violence is being brought to bear. Few people actually intend to become slaves, they simply make the "reasonable" decision to capitulate temporarily, until they can break free. But the leviathan is so huge, so powerful, so omnipresent, that a "reasonable" opportunity to break free never presents itself, and people remain in submission to regulations, taxes, mandates, injustices, the will of the mob, and the lust of politicians and bureaucrats. This is why Knights of Non-Aggression believe that slavery is a bad habit.
(Illustration: humans teach dogs to walk at their heels regularly. Dogs are smart enough to know where their suppers come from. They know their masters will not hesitate to inflict pain upon them if they do not do as they are bid, and make the reasonable decision to acquiesce. Cats, on the other hand, know the same things but are simply not trainable in the same way. I have seen a cat on a leash--once--but generally they are such stubborn individualists that it would simply never occur to a human to try to make a cat heel or fetch. In the few areas cats can be taught certain behaviors, it usually involves paying them for their service; threats just don't work.
People can choose how they will be. Throughout history, most have chosen to be like dogs: they submit. Imagine how things would be if people had consistently chosen to be as unreasonably stubborn as cats, preferring to die over submission to the will of another. Coercive institutions would not exist; such aggression would never have worked and it would never occur to anyone that things could be otherwise.)
1b] We urge all people to reconsider what is reasonable. Is capitulation reasonable when it dooms our children and grandchildren to live under ever more oppressive conditions? We must exercise that freedom which is ours for the choosing. We must refuse to cooperate with the institutions of coercion to the extent that we have the courage and creativity to do so. If everyone, everywhere, ceased to cooperate with the institutions of aggression, those institutions would cease to exist overnight. This won't happen, but the truth of the fundamental relationship--that enslavers require the cooperation of the enslaved and cannot exist without it--remains. This is why it is so vital that all people of good conscience begin an immediate, peaceful revolution of non-cooperation. The victims of aggression must desist from giving their sanction at once!
Thoreau showed us how potent the efforts of a single man can be along these lines. Gandhi showed us how unstoppable this power is when wielded by even a fraction of a population. We all know it: it is time to cease cooperating with those who would rule us.
(What specifically can be done is beyond the scope of this statement of principles. However, we urge all to begin thinking creatively about ways to avoid cooperating [coming soon] with our would-be rulers.)
2] The Liberty Round Table espouses non-aggression, not non-violence.
2a] It has been said that evil cannot create, that any value obtained by the evil must be expropriated from the creative good. Because of this, evil can only succeed by enslaving the good. Therefore, evil must be resisted, and to the extent that it is, its power diminishes. For this reason, self-defense--even violent self-defense--is not merely morally justifiable, but a duty to any who oppose evil. Knights of Non-Aggression are peace-loving but are not pacifists. Knights of Non-Aggression will never aggress, not even upon known agents of violence, but may well respond to force with force.
2b] The LRT is devoted to the eradication of an idea, and the abolition of its resultant institutions. Against ideas, force is impotent. The weapons of the Knights of Non-Aggression, therefore, are ideas and actions that demonstrate ideas. The LRT is not an organization that believes that positive social change (enlightenment) can be achieved through violence. We emphatically reject terrorist tactics as means that negate the end we seek (a freer society).
3] The LRT encourages action. Specifically, we will seek to engage in political and educational action, but not electoral action, which gives sanction to the state and cooperation to the systems of institutionalized aggression.*
3a] The LRT is not a think-tank or a discussion club. LRT projects will seek to engage individuals in principled action to gain media attention and communicate powerful ideas to large numbers of people.
*Voting in a system that claims authority and exercises violent power over unwilling persons, like all violence, may be justified in self-defense, but is tactically weak, morally unclear, and inconsistent with the oath of a Knight of Non-Aggression.
4] The LRT is committed to making a difference and to having fun while we do it.
4a] No one will be asked to sacrifice anything or to do more than they freely find value in doing. By opting out of the electoral rat-race, we can concentrate on initiating creative projects that demonstrate the values of liberty. These projects will do so in such a way that everyone involved has fun. The projects will be interesting enough to attract media attention. The projects will also communicate ideas clearly (or anti-ideas that will act as solvents upon the twisted ideas that afflict our society). Let's face it, standing around gathering signatures for ballot access is just not fun for most people... Our activities must beat out Monday Night Football, or we might as well forget it!
"Might is not Right. But there is a lot of Might knocking about in this world, and something has to be done about it."--King Arthur, The Once and Future King
tiggre@free-market.net
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URL: http://www.LibertyRoundTable.org/principles.html