How to Live and Let Live—Non-Aggression Principle
A Simple Guide for a Peaceful Life
When was the last time you recognized somebody’s immense discrepancies in reasoning while exploring political and philosophic issues? Many people do not follow one standard for their moral and political decisions but always have other rationales for their opinions conflicting with prior utterances. By following a single powerful principle you can avert such inconsistencies.
This rule can help you live a good life, treat others well, and create a fair and peaceful society. It that can be easily understood and applied by anyone, regardless of their background, beliefs, or preferences. This principle constitutes one of the core concepts of libertarianism. We are talking about the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP). Based on the idea that every person has self-ownership, meaning that they are responsible for themselves and their actions, and that they have natural rights that cannot be violated by others, it states that no one has the right to institute violence.
A Simple Principle
The Non-Aggression Principle is a moral and legal rule that forbids the initiation of physical force or fraud against another person or their property. It does not prohibit self-defense, retaliation, or restitution, as long as they are proportional to the original aggression. This is the NAP summed up—you can see that it is a very straightforward standard to live life.
Instead of being a complete ethical system, the non-aggression princple is a minimal standard of conduct that can be derived from various ethical theories, such as natural law, consequentialism, or objectivism. Further, advocates of different political doctrines, such as minarchism, anarchism, or classical liberalism, refer to it. However, while these are all freedom-oriented philosophies, only anarchists apply the NAP consistently since the state, in whatever size it may exist, is always an aggressor. You can see a clear indication of this by just looking at any important historical event—government is the biggest aggressor in history. It violates the NAP in its policies against its own citizens as well as, on a level of living together peacefully around the world, in engaging in wars and causing countless casualties of soldiers and uninvolved civilians.
The Struggle of Consistent Application
While the idea of self-ownership and natural rights appears in the world’s major religions and can be traced back to ancient philosophers, such as Laos, Aristotle, and Cicero, the term "Non-Aggression Principle" was coined by libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand. She argued that the only proper function of government is to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens, meaning to protect them from the initiation of force by others, and that any government that violates this rule is illegitimate and tyrannical. However, as already pointed out, this is not a fully consistent way of applying the NAP.
It was further developed and popularized by other libertarians, such as Murray Rothbard, David Friedman, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. For one thing, they applied it to various issues, such as taxation, war, crime, justice, immigration, education, and health care; for another thing, they debated the implications and limitations of this standard, such as the definition of aggression, the justification of self-defense, the role of consent, and the resolution of conflicts. Rothbard, who applied this rule consistently in his anarcho-capitalist deliberations, stressed its central importance for libertarianism: “The libertarian creed rests upon one central axiom: that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else.”
Living Together Peacefully
Foundation of a peaceful and prosperous society is people respecting each other’s rights and cooperating voluntarily for mutual benefit. The NAP, providing a clear and consistent criterion for judging the morality and legality of human action, depicts a precept for this. One can clearly observe the Non-Aggression Principle being applied less and less in Western societies as morals and ethic are increasingly disappearing from our lives.
Societies built on the NAP are characterized by respect for human dignity and autonomy, because every person is a rational and moral agent, who has the right to control their own body and property; and prevention of violence and coercion, as use of physical force or fraud to harm, threaten, or manipulate others is prohibited. This leads to promotion of cooperation and harmony, with citizens being free to have different preferences, beliefs, and lifestyles, as well as creation of wealth and innovation, since there is no justification to contravene the most basic element of economic freedom and market exchange—the right to private property.
Respecting Yourself and Others
We can use the Non-Aggression Principle as a very straightforward guide for everyday life helping us make clear decisions, both personally and socially, that are consistent with our values and principles. On the one hand, we do this by living our personal lives peacefully; on the other hand, we refrain from advocating any political measures increasing the power of history’s greatest aggressor.
We abstain from supporting any form of instigating aggression, neither conducted by individuals nor the government. There are two occasions for us to utilize violence: sports competitions where every involved party agrees to it, such as martial arts; or defense against an aggressor. Further, we refrain from lying, cheating, stealing, manipulating, and, with that, initiating or escalating conflicts. Hence, we help our fellows live according to the NAP.
A Powerful Rule
The Non-Aggression Principle is a simple but powerful rule that can help you live a moral and peaceful life—no one has the right to initiate force or fraud against another person or their property. It is derived from and part of various ethical and political theories, but only anarchists apply it consistently. To apply the NAP, you respect human dignity as well as autonomy and abstain from starting any coercive action. Through this, you foster cooperation as well as harmony, and incentivize wealth creation and innovation. Where do you see the largest deviation from the NAP in today’s society?
Think for yourself and question everything, my fellow liberty people!
Well written. To address the obvious straw man objection by statist apologists “but humans are inherently evil and selfish,” I say that it is this self-interest that makes statelessness and non-aggression possible. For the few people who are not driven by self-interest but rather self-destruction, there can always be common-sense stateless solutions to them, much better than anything the state could provide.
https://sotiris.substack.com/p/punishing-criminals-in-the-absence
Great article. You know, if everyone cared enough to take five minutes of time per day to think about how they can adjust their thoughts and actions to be less imposing on others, I know that the realm we’re in would be immensely more peaceful and free. Be less of an imposition to humans and animals and have the peace and freedom we all crave. It would be deserved.