All Rights Are Property Rights

I was introduced to the notion that all human rights are in fact property rights about a decade ago on an internet forum.  At first I balked at the idea, largely because I'd not thought of things in that way prior, but as I allowed time to work its digestive magic it quickly became clear to me that this was indeed true.

Going back to the definition of a "right", which is a "just claim" to something, it becomes clear upon even superficial consideration that human rights are claims to property.

The immediate objection that arose in my mind upon introduction to the assertion, was that regarding life itself.  I'd never prior considered my life as property.  My life was my own, of course, and yet the idea of it as my property never quite made it to the surface, so to speak.  However, it took very little time and consideration to come to the realization that my life was, indeed, my property, even if the thought implied some sort of separation between "me" and "my life".  But even if we agree that I am my life, who is to say that I cannot own myself?

My right to my life, which is to say my just claim to myself, implies most forcefully the idea that we own ourselves.  Our right to our own lives may be restated as our just claims to our own lives.  So put, the notion becomes more clear and more forceful in its own favor.

Now consider the Other - your fellow human being picked from the great wad of humanity at random.  If we call him Johnny Q. Public, then I ask you this: all else equal, does Johnny Q hold any claim to your life that is greater than your own?  Does he hold any claim whatsoever?  The only answer to which I can ever bring myself is "no" in each case.  How might Johnny Q make a valid claim to YOUR life that is of greater valence and salience than is your own?  What might such a claim look like?  I see no way of answering that question in a manner that does not stem from a presumption that is innately and embarrassingly obvious in its arbitrariness.


If it is correct across all possible pairings of human individuals that a man holds the primary and possibly sole just claim to his life vis-à-vis any other man, then we must perforce conclude that no man holds authority over another, once again and ever so importantly, all else equal.

In other words, so long as I have not trespassed against another, there is nothing that I might do that could justify the interference in my affairs by another.  Whether I smoke a joint on the courthouse steps, employ the services of a prostitute, buy and sell illicit drugs, go helicopter skiing from eighty-foot high ice cornices, or do any of a nearly endless number of things that might cause me serious injury, it is nobody's business that I so engage myself, much less that men in uniforms and with sidearms place me in a cage for it.

The basic and inherent freedom of the human individual directly implies agorism as the only valid societal foundation.  For those not familiar with the term, "agorism" is a philosophy wherein all human interaction between individuals of their majority is undertaken on a strictly voluntary basis.  Coercion and other means of force must not be employed in an agorist society, such use exposing the perpetrator to both criminal and civil liability.

For example, the rape of one individual by another would leave the rapist open to criminal charges and liable upon due conviction to the consequences of his actions.  Someone stealing a stick of gum from another might be liable for recompense, being given the opportunity to make good.  Failure to balance that scale could result in the escalation of charges into the criminal.

As for those who have not attained their majority, they live under a slightly different set of rules whereby their basic rights are maintained, but their individual prerogatives may be validly curtailed for the want of life experience and sufficient physical and mental development.

This brings us to the notion of life itself.  One's life is what we shall call his "First Property".  It is literally the first thing with which the living entity is endowed.  The entity owns itself, leading to the idea that he is autodiathistically entitled to keep and dispose of himself as he may see fit.  It is also eminently arguable and seemingly self-evident that one's life is also cardinally "first" in significance.  Therefore, "First Property" appears to these eyes to be a truly appropriate moniker and appellation.

Upon one's acceptance of the notion of his First Property, the rest of human rights as those pertaining to the property of the individual come into sharp focus, usually with little to no help.

I own my life, which is to say that I own myself.  That which I materially or intellectually come to possess through no demonstrably criminal act also becomes my property.  As I stroll along the Gulf Coast, I come upon a sea shell that I find beautiful, I am free to pick it into my physical possession and take it with me wherever I may choose, for as long as I might.  The taking having constituted no crime, the shell becomes my exclusive property.  Being property, I retain and reserve the right to defend it from destruction or theft at the hands of another, for unless I voluntarily relinquish exclusive ownership of the shell, nobody else may lay claim to it and act upon that claim as if it were valid.  In such cases of a counterclaim, we have courts who, in their presumed wisdom and impartiality, will hear the case to be made by one man against the claims of another, to some object or other asset, and render judgment as to whom said asset belongs in exclusive, or partial right.

When one begins to consider themselves and all that surrounds them in terms of property rights, their ideas of how the world properly works becomes far more clear, if deeply altered.  Lo and behold the world becomes an easier and better place in which to live.

Be well, and until next time please accept my best wishes.