Self-Determination and Why it is Important

As you read through my posts, you’ll discover that I will continue to emphasize one idea in particular – self-determination. Why? And what exactly does that means? Self-Determination is the principle that you, and you alone, are the master of your person (and your property, but we’ll address that more closely in a later post). You are the moral agent, and you alone decide what to do with yourself.

So why is this important? Well, firstly, it is fundamental to morality. If you do not exclusively control your body, then you cannot be held responsible for your actions. If someone else controls what I do, then I cannot be held to having committed an immoral action. And since morality is determined based on the actions of individuals in situations, an individual must possess moral autonomy.

Self-determination is the most essential aspect of freedom. The freedom to choose what you do with your possessions is the basis for all other matters of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought – these are derived from an individual’s autonomy. Every right that one possesses is necessarily based in this single acting principle.

What does this mean for government? Well, the government is the main violator of self-determination. In creating and enforcing laws that interfere in individuals’ abilities to do what they want with their possessions and voluntarily associate and contract with who they want, the state strips away more and more of your rights. They limit your freedom to make decisions, to control your body, and thus to act completely moral.

What government does is to erode away the principle of self-determination and replace it with state-determination. The state takes upon itself the task of deciding what is best for you, what you can and can’t do, and what it can do to you to further its own growth and expansion.

This effect can readily be seen throughout the government sprawl: the government has socialized roads, retirement funds, charity (welfare), schools, railroads, and many other things. What is the effect of this? Without getting into the quality and incentive issues, we can point out one glaringly obvious problem: people no longer have choices. People can’t choose another service without paying extra money, money that they would have had if the government hadn’t reached into their pockets to prop up their monopolies.

This is one of the largest objections to the state – it functions to remove personal choice from people to choose how they want to be treated, what they want to purchase, and what risks they want to take. It seeks control over people’s possessions and, in doing so, trims away at the remaining decision-making ability they had by hijacking their finances.

It’s so ironic when people praise America as being so free, yet can’t see just how unfree they are. But, then again, that’s the illusion the state wants to promulgate. They may as well start creating posters now:

CIA is watching you.
Monopoly is Choice
State-Determination is Freedom
2+2 is 5