Assistance from SASI members

[Trevor Watkins]

Hi

I am hoping to expand SASI in 2025 to attract more members, and fulfill its educational role.  To this end I have composed a letter to prospective members, which appears below. 

I would really appreciate some feedback from SASI founder and fellow and affiliate members on how to improve this letter.

Many thanks in advance.

LETTER TO PROSPECTS

Over the course of the last 40 years South African libertarians and individualists have crafted a new and profound social principle.  This is the HarmConsentRule - “Render no harm without consent, except in self-defense”.  It is derived from the non-aggression principle  and the consent axiom, but incorporates and replaces both.  It is a rational and consistent statement to describe the optimum relationship between individuals, and society in general. Individuals are defined as an independent, sentient, human entity. This excludes animals and foetuses.

Here is a link to the presentation by Trevor Watkins on the HarmConsentRule at the recent 39th Libertarian Spring Seminar.

The South African School of Individualism (SASI) has been established to promote this new principle more widely within South Africa and beyond, through education and activism. Membership is open to any individual who subscribes to the HCR - the HarmConsentRule. 

Members are invited to 

• understand and grasp the implications of this rule

• engage with fellow members, critics and opponents on the rule

• promote the HCR amongst friends, relatives and colleagues

SASI has the following resources:

• a website at www.individualist.one with much related information

• a membership application form on the website

• a discussion forum at individualist.googlegroups.com 

•  a whatsapp Individualist group

• a database of around 500 names of past and current individualists and libertarians.

There are 3 grades of SASI membership, each with its own privileges - 

Ordinary (Free), 

Affiliate (R100),

Fellow (R400).  

You can register online at the Individualist Movement website, or by replying to this email (bas...@gmail.com) with your details. 

Contact Trevor Watkins on 083 4411 721 if you have any queries.

[Stephen vJ]

As an animal and former foetus, I have to raise some concern with; "This excludes animals and foetuses.". In fact I have two distinct objections with this statement.

1. Many homo sapiens are not sentient at any given time and most of us are not fully aware, awake and capable of logical and rational decision making much of the time... I'm tempted to say at all, but will go with sometimes for now. This is obvious when we are unconscious, asleep, drunk, aggravated, provoked, surprised, under pressure, poorly informed, indoctrinated, etc... my point is, good decision making abilities should not be a deciding factor in an absolute philosophical principle. Consent should apply also to those who cannot give it explicitly and without regards to their ability to fully grasp all the implications. I would rather confront the question of the pig's consent to becoming Christmas ham than to preemptively exclude his entire class from the get go. As soon as some smarter looking thing lands on our shores, I might well be relegated to the pig class and British colonialism has shown us how easily that can happen. Immigration laws are about to repeat history.

2. These two classes of being touch on two hotly debated topics in recent political landscapes in English speaking countries, particularly the USA. They also smack of the position taken by The Right and is not objective, universal and timeless. This means your letter will disproportionately appeal to a smaller demographic of right-wing leaning people familiar with current US politics. Maybe that is the aim, but I would not have gone there. More importantly, that exclusionary sentence could scare off vegans and otherwise left-leaning people, which includes many great philosophers. These are exactly the caring, thinking people who are already on a path of enlightenment and can use a nudge towards individualism & liberty. We already have too much right-wing leaning supporters, in my opinion, to go and bias recruitment even further to the right.

I also have an issue with the word "sentient", but removing just the one sentence mentioned above, would make the entire letter a lot more acceptable in my opinion.

Stephen.

On Dec 25, 2024, at 07:46, Trevor Watkins <bas...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi

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[viv...@iafrica.com]

Great thoughts, Stephen, thank you. I can't see the sentence you highlighted? It comes out black. What did you object to?

---

From: "Stephen vJ" <sjaar...@gmail.com>
To: "individualist" <indivi...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "Individualist Movement" <indivi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2024 8:33:35 PM
Subject: Re: IM: Assistance from SASI members

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/individualist/A6E5AE07-E60E-41CE-8C5D-D692C79A5D44%40gmail.com.

[Sid Nothard]

 

 

From: indivi...@googlegroups.com [mailto:indivi...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen vJ
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2024 8:34 PM
To: indivi...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Individualist Movement
Subject: Re: IM: Assistance from SASI members

 

As an animal and former foetus, I have to raise some concern with; "This excludes animals and foetuses.". In fact I have two distinct objections with this statement.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/individualist/A6E5AE07-E60E-41CE-8C5D-D692C79A5D44%40gmail.com.

[Sid Nothard]

The majority of human beings are still clinging on to vestiges of the Bicameral Mind.

They don’t want to accept responsibility for their actions and require others to do their thinking for them

So they cling to Religion and Politics (Which are branches of philosophy)

They are trapped in the Matrix, but are too comfortable to break out.

 

Sid

 

From: indivi...@googlegroups.com [mailto:indivi...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen vJ
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2024 8:34 PM
To: indivi...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Individualist Movement
Subject: Re: IM: Assistance from SASI members

 

As an animal and former foetus, I have to raise some concern with; "This excludes animals and foetuses.". In fact I have two distinct objections with this statement.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/individualist/A6E5AE07-E60E-41CE-8C5D-D692C79A5D44%40gmail.com.

[Trevor Watkins]

Hi Stephen

Thanks - this is exactly what I was looking for. This was meant to be a marketing document, but I couldn't resist putting a bit of justification into it. I will drop the offending sentences. 

Other comments welcome.

regards

[Stephen vJ]

I objected to "This excludes animals and foetuses.".

Stephen.

On Dec 26, 2024, at 01:52, viv...@iafrica.com wrote:



To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/individualist/631608903.2874498.1735203111448.JavaMail.zimbra%40iafrica.com.