The epic myth of Libertarian slavery
Posted in Serious Levity by R Lee Wrights on August 27th, 2009 by Kevin Joseph Tull
There is an idea among some opponents of Libertarianism that under a Libertarian system one can sell themselves into slavery. There are even some Libertarians who have a difficult time arguing against this concept as they see that by having property right over ones own body they can sell their body or parts thereof to others and once such a contract is agreed to by both parties no government interference can occur to break this contract. These Libertarians and their opponents can see that this would actually leave someone in a state of slavery even if they changed their minds about a contract of indentured servitude after it was signed. Sometimes the only Libertarian responses available to the ill informed activist are “It says in the platform we are against indentured servitude, so we are,” or even worse, “Well, if your stupid enough to enter into that kind of contract then I guess you get what you deserve.”
Opponents of Libertarianism claim that because a persons body is just another piece of property, as stated in our platform, then creditors could take possession of it as the last item of property a debtor owns.
From this point some of our opponents come up with bizarre fictionalized accounts of a leviathan corporate slave society where children of slaves are harvested to compete with free laborers and also harvested for body organs all to be traded as just another commodity.
While this concept could make an epic Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner science fiction film about this imagined future Libertarian society, it would remain purely fiction.
The reason this imagined society wouldn’t exist is twofold:
First Libertarians believe that all our property rights emanate from the person along with the right to life and the right to liberty. Libertarians also believe that rights are inalienable, inherent in being human. In other words just by being created human we have rights that we can never be separated from, otherwise they would not be rights. In the platform it says that “All rights are inextricably linked with property rights”, not that all rights originate from property or ownership of property. Self ownership is a right we can not be separated from.
The only way a government can justly infringe on these rights (through arrest and incarceration) is if the person in question has infringed upon the rights of others. But because the person still owns themselves, government or any other entity cannot then sell a person incarcerated into slavery.
Second the fact that the Libertarian Party platform supports common law court proceedings, allows a level of protection not fully enacted in today’s judicial system. One right that Libertarians recognize is the right to take disputes over contracts to court, and not just to be judged by a magistrate, but to be judged by a jury based on the facts without government interference in the rules of evidence. Also, being under common law calls for not allowing a Judge to order a jury to decide a certain way if the evidence presented upholds a person’s case.
A good example of how this system would work is provided in history from a time when even though it could be proven by the plaintiffs that their clients had contracts to ownership of slaves they still lost in a court of law. The Fugitive Slave Act could not be effectively enforced previous to the Civil War. And this was at a time when although most jurors in the north were against slavery many still did not believe that blacks were equal to whites. And in Boston angry mobs set free captured blacks who were pending trial.
In this enlightened age where the vast majority recognize the equality of all mankind does anyone believe a jury would uphold a contract of involuntary servitude. Only fools and bigoted fools would believe that. In a Libertarian society the chance of a contract of indentured servitude existing would be slim to none.
After the Civil War the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted and in case anyone is worrying no Libertarians are calling for the repeal of this law.
I have made several good points on why the Libertarian platform not only does not support slavery and in fact prohibits it. Their still is no clear point in the LP’s platform that can be pointed to that directly promotes this idea so that Libertarian activists can speak on this topic without confusion. Unless a Libertarian take the points of debate on this topic that I have espoused then they can misrepresent what we stand for and look rather foolish because they have not armed themselves with this information.
Because of this I am now proposing and will be submitting to the Libertarian Party Platform Committee the following addition to the platform, after I have received feedback on this. Under the section titled: Individual Rights and Civil Order, and under the subtitle: The Right to Property, I propose after the following paragraph that the next paragraph be added as new language.
All rights are inextricably linked with property rights. Such rights as the freedom from involuntary servitude as well as the freedom of speech and the freedom of press are based on self-ownership. Our bodies are our property every bit as much as is justly acquired land or material objects.
New proposed language:
Because of the fact that an individuals body is their own property and since all rights originate from the individual it is then recognized and affirmed that a persons body throughout their life remains their possession and cannot be taken possession of by a creditor, nor can any contract be entered into for a person to sell parts or use of their body unwillingly, nor can any contract for the selling of an individuals body parts or the use of an individuals body already entered into be considered binding once the individual has refused consent.
I believe this will clear up any confusion with where Libertarians stand on this issue and will help our activist’s to more clearly portray this to the public.
I believe that there will be some who might argue in good faith that our platform doesn’t need to keep growing for us to counter this subject, but I feel that this is an important point for us to make that it will supply us with a little extra ammo in the continuing fight for freedom.
We Libertarians know that our political philosophy is the best way to help increase the freedom of mankind. We know that as our ideas become reality that the sweeping grasp of our current governmental system will loosen and we will know what it means to be a free people who are not beholden to our government for freedoms that we were born with.
No more government landlords and no more government regulation that is just an excuse to keep us from exercising our rights to control our bodies and our property.
We Libertarians have the only political and societal philosophy that is not based on the initiation of force.
Because all other political philosophies are based on the initiation of force to achieve their goals they perpetuate slavery and because they do not realize it or they call it by some other name does not make it any less slavery.
Other people and political parties give lip service to advocating freedom, but only the Libertarian Party believes in your right to ignore the state and the state to ignore you as long as you do not violate the rights of others.
Imagine, only just laws that as long as you don’t violate them you remain free; the ability to go where you want to go and do what you want to do without government license or fees or rents or regulations.
That people, is freedom and anything apart from that is slavery.
