When people act on their OWN judgment, like grown-ups, they are
stuck with the responsibility and consequences of their actions. A
favorite excuse of people who do stupid and/or evil things is "I
was just following orders." This amounts to claiming that they were
NOT acting as thinking, judging, responsible beings with free will,
but were acting as unthinking tools of someone else. Put another
way, the "obeying authority" excuse amounts to saying: "You can't
blame me! I'm just a stupid, programmable machine, not a thinking
human!" Swell.
People who believe in self-ownership (e.g., anarchists) don't ever
get to use that excuse. You see, we believe that we are endowed
with thought and free will, and that we are therefore obligated to
judge right and wrong for ourselves, and obligated to act
accordingly. What we do, WE DO. We don't try to dodge
responsibility by pretending that we were possessed by someone or
something else.
If the whole world were like that, even if there remained many
differences of opinion, as well as stupidity, carelessness, and/or
malice, the vast majority of evil would stop. Why? Because most
evil is NOT committed by people acting on their own judgment, but
by people "doing what they were told."
One of the most serious decisions a thinking person can make is,
"Should I use violence?" Most people who are acting on their own
will resort to violence only in rare and extreme cases. Those who
act as unthinking tools of "authority," on the other hand, use
force and violence CONSTANTLY, without hesitation, without any
qualms or doubts, and without any guilt or remorse.
My suggestion for ANYONE who uses force is this: use your judgment,
and when you decide to use force, accept the responsibility
yourself, and face the consequences yourself. Don't hide behind "he
told me to" and other spineless excuses. In other words, grow up
and act like an adult.
But people in "government" don't do that. Consider, for example,
the fact that a couple MILLION peop..
