Natural Law, Free Will and the Non-Aggression Principle

In this essay I will explain my viewpoint on root problems and real solutions using knowledge I gained through research including Mark Passio's talk on Natural Law, Free Will and Personal Responsibility, which incorporates the concept of balancing the masculine and feminine through Care, Knowledge, and Courage (Emotions, Thoughts, Actions = Trinity). These concepts will also address the issue of Unjust Laws, which manifests in tyrannical government edicts like The War on Drugs. One of the examples I will use will be the the much discussed problems in the black and minority community and why these problems persist and continue to get worse, not better. My contention: Taking away moral agency, which is a tenant of Natural Law that people make choices and act out behaviors because every person possess Free Will, implies that blacks and minorities are unable to succeed by their merit alone, and puts all the blame on external factors such as Institutionalized Racism, White Privilege, and Cultural Hegemony which is included in the dogma of Critical Race Theory. 

The working definition of Natural Law is "The body of universal, non man-made, binding, and immutable Laws which act as the governing dynamic for the consequences of human behavior (conscience)". This includes The Non Regression Principle (Sacred Feminine and the Golden Rule) and the principle that Freedom and Morality are directly proportional. The truth of Natural Law is that there is Right and Wrong action, Good and Evil, Moral and Immoral choices.  Facts and principles are not subjective, but objective and universal. To accept Natural Law as the First Principle of the universe means that moral relativism is a erroneous belief. For example, when you initiate violent action against another person and/or their personal property and cause them harm you are violating the Non Aggression Principle and behaving immorally.  Behavior --> Was something harmed? --> Yes --> What it yours? --> No --> That is a Wrong Action. Behavior is the Action of Free Will.

 

Balance and harmony in the Macro (society, community) and Micro (Self) levels of existence is the absence of contradiction between Emotions, Thoughts and Actions. This is the balance between the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine, or the balance between the Left brain and Right brain. When the two hemispheres are out of balance you see extremism in Emotion, Thought and Actions. 

When there are problems manifested in the world most people can describe the symptoms and the "prison" in accurate detail. They can tell you how it works very well, but they can't tell you why the problems are happening.  When asked, "Why?" there are incorrect answers and assumptions.  In the case of the crime, poverty, fatherlessness, family breakdown, and strife in the black community the answer most people profess is "Systemic Racism" and oppression by the "White Patriarchy", but that is not the root cause. How do you solve a problem?

1) Recognize that there IS a problem. Fear-based denial of the problem must be first dealt with and conquered. Recognize change first starts at the Micro (Self) level then aggregates into the Macro (Community, Society) level. Recognizing a problem requires Self ReFlection ("to look at again"), which includes pain, suffering, and and conscious thought. The majority of the time, the problems that manifest in people's lives are not due to external factors, but may lie within themselves and their own immoral actions. This is having a "Conscience", which means "with knowledge". There are no cop-outs or excuses for immoral behavior. When one lives in fear-based denial one can have the mindset, "I have suffered, so therefore I shall cause suffering." This may or may not be a conscious thought, but it manifests in different mental and physical ways. Cycles of systemic suffering and violence are caused by Willful Ignorance with Knowledge and SelfReflection being the key to correcting the cycle. 

2) Recognize the symptoms being displayed are merely effects of underlying causes. Therefore, instead of simply trying to treat the symptoms, make an accurate diagnosis. ("Dia" = through, by way of, "Gnosis" = knowledge)  We co-create our shared reality in the aggregate.  Individual choices either based in Harmony or opposition to Natural Law influence the quality of the shared experience.  This dynamic acts as a perfect expression of the Principle of Correspondence: "As above, so below.  As below, so above."  For a change to take place numbers are required (majority of people that recognize, diagnose and treat the problem). 

3) Through knowledge acquired via accurate diagnosis, take required Action necessary to rectify the causal factors which led to the manifestation of the problem.

As an example, how can "systemic racism" as a nebulous cause, especially as defined in Critical Race Theory, be rectified to solve the literal causal factors which led to the manifested Reality? As people say, Change Starts at Home. How can diagnosing the problem as a Macro, "Racism", be accurate? How can Critical Race Theory be a behavioral symptom when it is a Theory (a Perception, not a Truth). 

So, what is Critical Race Theory? Critical Race Theory "recognizes that racism is ingrained in the fabric and system of U.S. society.  The individual racist need not EXIST to note that institutional racism is pervasive in the dominant culture." CRT came from Critical Theory and Radical Feminism and borrows from such European philosophers and radical Marxists such as Gramsci, Derrida, Reich, and Marcuse to name a few. White Privilege is "white people, by virtue of the fact that they are white have a privileged position in American Culture." 

The three main hypotheses of Critical Race Theory:

1) Racism is ordinary, not aberrational.  This falsely assumes that Evil (racism) is ordinary and the norm, not Good. Evil is not necessary. The only people who believe that Evil must exist in order for people to recognize the Good are self-loathing and lack self-respect. Claiming that racism is an ordinary state of experiencing life as a minority encourages blacks to distrust and blame whites.  It caters to those who embrace only emotional rhetoric (Right Brain imbalance) and not empirical facts. Critical race theory also serves as a guilt mechanism for whites in order to extract apologies for "invisible" wrongs that they can not perceive due to "White Privilege". 

2) "Interest Convergence" is when racism advances the interests of both white "elites" and white "working class people" so large segments of society don't do anything to "eradicate" it. This is another false assumption based in a false Reality, for it again, generalizes a whole 'race' of people which is disingenuous and dangerous. This tenant of CRT is based on Gramsci's theory of Cultural Hegemony and belief in Historicism. Cultural Hegemony states that cultural values of the bourgeois are based on folklore, popular culture and religion, therefore those needed to be deconstructed and the the proletariat create their own separate culture. Historicism is the theory that the knowledge of the world is not derived from our relation to objective reality, but rather from social relations between the bearers of those concepts. As a result there is no such thing as "human nature" or "natural law", which segways to the third tenant: 

3) Race is a "social construction", which purports that race is a product of social "thought" and "relations", not objective, inherent, or fixed.  Race corresponds to no biological or genetic reality.  This last tenet completely obliterates the entire Left Brain Hemisphere (the Sacred Masculine) and is an example of extreme Right Brain (Feminine) Pathological Imbalance. There can be no truth or balance in a theory if one side of the Brain is completely ignored.  For more reading on genetics and differences between race, refer to Taboo by John Entine and The Bell Curve by Charles Murray. 

Nature versus Nurture? What is the nature of a human being? That is akin to asking 'What is the nature of of a Coffee Pot?' or 'What is the nature of a laptop computer?' Human nature is not inherently Evil or Good, just like a coffee pot or laptop is not inherently Evil or Good. Instead, we should consider the operating conditions, or the environment in which human beings exist, which influences behavior to a great extent, thus creating the 'human condition'. We can use the analogy that human beings are similar to computers, in that human beings are 'programmable'. Good in --> Good out.  Garbage in --> Garbage out.  What gets put into a person's mind via its environment (culture) becomes their programming and determines behavior (output).  If the human being has a erroneous "file system" (traumatic childhood, harmful environment growing up during the formative years), a bad "operating system" (culture), and a bad "software program" (rigid and dogmatic beliefs), their "output" (behavior) onto the "screen" of life will also be bad and will contribute to the deteriorating conditions on a mass scale.  Like a computer, the behavior of a human being will largely depend upon its programming, which is the quality of the information put into it which enables it to process and create efficiently. 

So, who is ultimately responsible, at fault, or deserving of blame for a violation of the Non Aggression Principle and Natural Law which resulted in the harm of others? When viewed in the perspective of Natural Law and Behavior it becomes impossible to blame something like "White Privilege", "Critical Race Theory", or "The Patriarchy" because those concepts do not, and can not wield personal responsibility or moral culpability, and they never will.  Personal responsibility lies with the individual.  For example, John Q decides to take heroin. By taking heroin, John's behavior is not forced upon him by "racism" but by personal choice.  Choices have consequences. Now, we can not say John's behavior is a violation of the Non Aggression Principle because his choice to do heroin harms only himself, not others.  You can argue that if John abuses heroin that causes collateral damage by affecting his family, relationships, and well being, but it is not the initiation of Force. But if John physically abuses his son, that is the initiation of Force against another person and that is morally Wrong. As well, if John is high on heroin and steals or vandalizes someone else's property, that in the initiation of Force and is morally Wrong.  We can have a discussion at a later time as to what Morally Right disciplinary action should be taken with John to prevent him from initiating violence on others.

Therefore, what if the State puts John in a cage (jail) for breaking a "law" that dictates that smoking Cannabis is illegal? Based on our example of John we agree that by smoking Cannabis he is not violating the NAP so being jailed for Cannabis is Morally Wrong. The State has the power to arbitrarily dictate punishments and enforce Morally Unjust laws, which affect every citizen, not just blacks and minorities.  So, the War on Drugs and many other government laws are not Racist, but Morally Unjust. Once one applies Natural Law and the NAP to problems, the causes and effects become much clearer and easier to determine.