Is The State a form of cooperation?

Cooperation

Cooperation is inherently peaceful. But The State initiates force as its main tool of action. This contradicts the meaning of the word cooperation.

True cooperation is inherently win-win, while initiated force is win-lose. You initiate force in order to impose things on unwilling people. That’s not cooperation. It’s crime.

Libertarians believe governments must obey the Zero Aggression Principle. Governments must not initiate force. They must only use force defensively. 

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Jim Babka

About the Author

Jim Babka

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Jim Babka is co-founder of the Zero Aggression Project and President of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. He’s an author and former talk show host.
Previously, he was the President of RealCampaignReform.org, Inc., defending free press rights all the way to the Supreme Court. He and Susie are the proud, home-schooling parents of three teenagers. He enjoys theology, UFC, target practice, and Tai Chi.

Perry Willis

About the Author

Perry Willis

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Perry Willis is the co-founder of the Zero Aggression Project and Downsize DC. He was the National Director of the Libertarian National Committee on two occasions, and ran two Libertarian Party presidential campaigns. He has an extensive background in marketing and fundraising, and has ghost written direct mail appeals for numerous luminaries, including Karl Hess, Ron Paul, Charlton Heston and Harry Browne.

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    1. Hi Brian. Thanks for the suggestion. We do use external links when we need to backup an assertion with an attested fact, or a fact with a source. But we link heavily to other Mental Levers on our site because we’re trying to create a mosaic. Each Lever is so short that it cannot tell the whole story. But eventually, as we create more Levers, and link them all together, we hope that the picture will approach completeness. There are plenty of other sites that offer lists of books to read. We are most pointedly NOT trying to provide that service. Rather, we are trying to provide a resource that offers libertarian information in bite size chunks.

  1. “…governments must obey the zero aggression principle.” They don’t. Why? People believe, even worship aggression as a political principle. Aggression is a sacred superstition, unquestioned, taught religiously from early childhood. Institutionalized aggression is “The Most Dangerous Superstition”.
    So what do we do about it? Just refuting it won’t change a mind. Minds change one by one, after introspection. But telling libertarians what “must be” doesn’t help them make it so. Larken & Amanda Rose’s “Candles in the Dark” seminar teaches us how to help people overcome superstition by using the Socratic Method or a derivative. So does Anthony Magnabosco’s “Street Epistemology”.

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