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Insurrection vs. Pacifism: A False Dillema
There is a general traditional strategic split among anarchists between insurrectionary anarchism and pacifist anarchism. Insurrection is generally associated with either individual or public violent revolution, although if one wants to be specific it...
Posted Wed, Jun 3 2009 by Brainpolice | 5 comment(s)
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Struggling With Max Stirner
I have a great amount of respect for the near-forgotten figure Max Stirner. His ill-famed "The Ego and His Own" is probably the most radical, thought provoking and challenging writting that I have ever read. Not only did Stirner explicitly take...
Posted Sun, Jan 25 2009 by Brainpolice | 14 comment(s)
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On Amoralist Anarchism
I've been a part of numerous online social networks or general social groups online that contains some amoralist anarchists, who either are former libertarian anarchists who have come to reject libertarianism or they are anarchists who rejected libertarianism...
Posted Thu, Jan 22 2009 by Brainpolice | 7 comment(s)
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Putting The NAP In Its Proper Context
I contend that the non-aggression principle is not a contextless axoim and it requires a specific definition of the difference between genuine self-defense and the initiation of violence. There is a grave problem that thin libertarianism and plumb-line...
Posted Sun, Jan 18 2009 by Brainpolice | 3 comment(s)
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Revising Self-ownership
In various articles in the past I have made a monist objection to a dualistic concept of self-ownership due to the problems that an absolute mind/body dichotomy leads to. To summarize the problem: who exactly is it that is doing the owning? If I own it...
Posted Thu, Jan 8 2009 by Brainpolice | 473 comment(s)
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Is self-ownership a misnomer?
If something is owned, then by definition there is something external to it that is doing the owning. Likewise, something that is owned is by definition something external to the agent that owns it. Taking this very basic point into account, does it really...
Posted Tue, Sep 16 2008 by Brainpolice | 10 comment(s)
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Objects Are Morally Neutral
I've always been a stickler for the notion that objects are morally neutral. This notion usually comes to play in debates about gun prohibition, to counter people essentially claiming that guns are causal determinant for violence in and of themselves...
Posted Thu, Jul 17 2008 by Brainpolice | with no comments
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Judeo-Christian Morality vs. The Free Society
I'd like to explain why I think that traditional judeo-christian morality does not synch up very well with the principles of liberty and does not provide a beneficial cultural framework for a free society. In many ways, I'm not going to be saying...
Posted Sat, Jun 21 2008 by Brainpolice | 10 comment(s)
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Morality, Rationality, Survival and the Law
I was having a bit of a debate with an Objectivist and we got into some questions about morality and rationality. It related to the question of suicide, and I maintained that suicide is irrational but not immoral and that the individual has the liberty...
Posted Tue, Jun 3 2008 by Brainpolice | 1 comment(s)
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Politics Is The Opiate Of The Masses
Theism is not the only kind of mysticism. Collectivist and political ideologies are also forms of mysticism. The nature of politics involves blind faith in a "highest essence". The abstractions of these "highest essences" function...
Posted Tue, Jun 3 2008 by Brainpolice | 5 comment(s)
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Liberty as a Lack of Unchosen Positive Obligations
And a lack of a gaurantee of survival and flourishing There are two fundamental ways in which liberty and rights can be defined. One definition of liberty is the freedom to use one's faculties in order to persue one's rational self-interest without...
Posted Wed, Jan 23 2008 by Brainpolice | 1 comment(s)
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On Human Nature
It is common for humans to be presented as being separate from and even antagonistic with nature. In particular, some radical environmentalists portray human beings as inherently waging war on mother nature, that our existance is intrinsically destructive...
Posted Wed, Jan 2 2008 by Brainpolice | 11 comment(s)
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A Defense of Rational Egoism
Defining Rational Egoism Wikipedia defines rational egoism as follows: "Rational egoism is the pursuit of one's own, accurately perceived, self-interest. The term may refer either to the philosophical view that it is always in accordance with...
Posted Fri, Dec 7 2007 by Brainpolice | 5 comment(s)
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Pragmatic Utilitarianism: A Road to Tyranny
The arguements given by people to justify unethical acts are usually utilitarian, which is to say that a given act is defended on the grounds that it is beneficial to someone. This is commonly manifested in the arguements given in defense of the alleged...
Posted Fri, Nov 30 2007 by Brainpolice | 3 comment(s)
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