Most people yearn for peace and human flourishing. But how do we get there?

Many believe we just need a better political program.  Or perhaps better people in charge of the current political system. But I say we need to reject political programs altogether. The path forward lies through a change in ideas — a shift that rejects politics and its inherent violence and embraces voluntaryism and peaceful cooperation.

What do I mean by voluntaryism?

At its core, voluntaryism is a very simple philosophy.

But living it out gets a bit more complicated.

It’s not unlike the core commandments underlying Christianity. Jesus boiled down it down to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. It’s a simple concept that becomes very difficult to put into practice.

In a nutshell, voluntaryists believe that all human interactions should be voluntary and consensual. It follows that people can’t ethically initiate aggressive violence, force, or coercion.

The philosophy is simple and beautiful. It’s difficult to argue that society wouldn’t be better if everybody embraced these basic premises.  In fact, up to this point, most people are probably nodding along in agreement, thinking, “Yeah, that would be great.”

That’s right up until they realize that voluntaryism strips them of the power to control others.

People seem to have an insatiable desire to bend others to their will.

That’s where things seem to fall apart.

Consensual interactions sound good until you think somebody should do a certain thing. At that point, a little force always becomes an option.

This control impulse runs the gamut from those trying to stop people from engaging in actions they find unacceptable to others, to forcing people into or out of behaviors that they see as beneficial or destructive to society. Some controllers are merely busybodies. Others act with the best of intentions.

But the end result is the same: coercion, force, and ultimately, violence.

Most people won’t initiate violence in order to coerce people themselves. Instead, they subcontract their violence, force and coercion to the state. They wouldn’t hit their neighbor for smoking weed. But they’ll eagerly vote for politicians who will lock their neighbor in a cage for even possessing a marijuana plant. They wouldn’t walk into their neighbor’s house to take their guns. But they will lobby for laws allowing armed government agents to do their dirty work.

Or consider taxation. It violates every basic tenant of voluntaryism. The state takes money from people without their consent. But when I object to this practice, I’m told taxation is necessary. That implies coercion is necessary.

“But what about the roads!” someone will incredulously ask.

Let’s imagine for a moment we couldn’t have roads without taxation (a ridiculous assumption – but we’ll go with it). Would that justify you hitting me because you want a road?

Of course not.

But that’s the essence of taxation.

Voluntaryism dovetails with the second great commandment – love your neighbor as yourself. It is the path to a peaceful society. But we can’t even start down this path until we reject the compulsion to control others.

Resisting the impulse to control others is hard. Loving our neighbor is hard. But this is the first step toward peace and human flourishing.