Sunday, February 20, 2011

Basic Beliefs: Non Aggression Pt. 1

All of our authors agree that government laws, edicts, and orders are ultimately backed by physical force. It is the job of the police, courts, and prisons to exercise this force against any and all violators. This is, in fact, the purpose of government: To force people do things they would otherwise not do. THE question for political theory is what can the government legitimately force people to do?

For Ayn Rand force is only justified in defense of a person’s rights to life, property, and contract. Notice, this is a point about when individuals may legitimately use force against other individuals. First and foremost it is a point about how individuals should act using their own minds and bodies.

However, defense (and offense) need not be purely individual affairs. Smart individuals either persuade allies or buy them. For Rand, now, the question centers on how third parties function in the defense of rights. Most agree that third parties can intervene to protect someone else, even if they were not initially in danger of having their own rights violated. What distinguishes her from mainstream political thought is that this legitimacy does not change when individuals band together in the form of government.

Metaphysically, and morally, governments are collections of individuals and possess no additional rights over and above the individuals who constitute it. It is this that separates Rand from both the political Left and Right. People seem to easily distinguish her from the left and clearly note that her theory prohibits any sort of state sponsored Social Justice. She thoroughly rejects any market regulations based on “Equality” or Fairness”. Similarly, who gets hired, and for how much, is solely the business of the negotiating parties. Oddly, though, those on the left can’t quite seem to distinguish her from the right.

The political Right clearly knows she is not one of them. For Rand, drugs, pornography, and gambling may be individually irrational, but they are protected by the same rights as the printers of Bibles. Her views on women and leadership as well as the propriety of sexual relations places her well outside the bounds of many religious/traditionalist conservatives.

However, what absolutely places her outside the circle of conservative philosophy is her belief that these rights are grounded in the nature of the individual. This actually places her far closer to liberal theory in that the individual is not morally bound by tradition, family, religion, or country. Of course, she also places herself outside of liberal camps by adding “society” to the list of entities that have no proper authority.

Her notion of proper authority is completely grounded in her conception of individual rights. Non aggression is a conclusion of her theory of rights. While Atlas Shrugged obviously focuses on the non aggression principle and how illegitimate government can violate individual rights, the real story is about how and why individuals possess certain rights. The deeper story of Atlas Shrugged is about the nature of the individual.

At this point then we now have two levels of Atlas Shrugged. The first level concerns the nature of individual rights. The second concerns the efficacy, and legitimacy, of government action. To understand her theory, think about why these are two different levels and how exactly they relate.

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