Peace, EU and The Legacy of The West

Have you perhaps seen me post anti EU and anti US stuff in the past? Did that make you think that I’m conservative, nationalist, reactionary? Or perhaps you thought that I’m a left-wing “Social Justice Warrior”? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Philosophy and Science

My focus is primarily a philosophical one – the notion that authority doesn’t exist, it’s an illusion.

Now, I don’t expect you to agree with me. Just thought I’d give you the full picture; keep in mind that “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” (Aristotle).

I encourage you to try that perspective on like a pair of glasses – feel free to take them off again later: Authority is a mental construct – you cannot touch it or measure it. It only exists inside the head of the people that have heard of it and believe in it. The same is the case for derived concepts like “a nation” or “a state” or a “federation” or a “union” like the EU.

In the real physical world, only people exist – not institutions. Looking through those glasses, the people that enforce authority are just people that believe that they have special rights that other people don’t have – the right to initiate force. Any initiation of force towards a person is a violation of his/her self-ownership. And in turn, self-ownership is a fact of the real physical world – not a mental construct.

Consequently, I don’t vote at elections*. As I see it, voting is an attempt to delegate a right that I don’t have – the right to initiate force on other people.

* At a referendum, I may choose to vote ‘no’ to a project as an act of self defense.

This perspective is an exercise in self-constraint; to resist the urge to change other people through coercion; to refrain from inflicting my subjective values on other people by force. It is the closest you can get to be a pacifist without being one (pacifists will also argue that self defense is wrong).

Interpretations

Historically, this is the legacy of the western world, conceived in Europe and developed through thousands of years – resulting in ever increasing individual freedom such as free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to choose occupation and to live where you want, freedom of religion and much more. Generation after generation fought for freedom from oppression to gain more individual freedom, ie the freedom to be yourself.

Europe was in a unique position when the Roman Empire collapsed. There was no power big enough to take over after the Roman one, only thousands of small autonomous states that effectively competed to provide the best living conditions – none of them strong enough to become an empire. People in Europe inherited a common language (Latin), a numeric system, calendar and other standards from the Roman Empire.

As a result, ideas, goods and services could flow freely between people allover Europe without any super power being able to restrict them. That lead to huge advances in philosophy and science and consequently to the the renaissance and later the industrial revolution which lifted hundreds of millions out of misery and poverty in Europe. These values have later been implemented in ‘The Western World’ and to even more societies around the world and has lifted billions out of poverty on a global scale.

All empires in human history have ended up collapsing from within when people running the system began serving themselves rather than regular people. That is what is happening to EU and US now. The biggest scientific and economic progressions of Europe happened before the EC/EU was created. I am sure that many people that supported first EC (later EU) in its early days represented a movement for peace and prosperity – that is, millions of individuals that wanted more interaction and interdependence between people living within European communities.

EU and the US have become empires that will collapse like all other empires have. I’d like to see the opposite movement back to what made Europe spawn the greatest achievements in human history; a movement towards ever smaller autonomous communities. In effect, such communities will compete to create the best living conditions for its people.