Picture this; Sicily 2024. Aliens from Orion land and claim the entire planet for their benevolent proto-libertarian emperor. They're in favour of democracy, property rights, NAP and the preservation of foreign cultures, hence the ban on eating yoghurt... but they're not quite libertarian. For the most part they leave us all alone, except that they see libertarianism as a mental illness or deficiency, since people who suffer from libertarianism have a hard time understanding taxes, voting and the legislative process. Trevor is on the libertarian spectrum, obviously, even though he holds some non-libertarian beliefs like juries and prime rib dinners. Dougie is on the spectrum too even though he is a minarchist and religious... he's so close to democrat that it's hard to detect that he's on the libertarian spectrum. For a while he was classified as having an entirely separate disease called Friedmanism, but eventually correctly diagnosed as being on the same spectrum as the other libertarians. Way over on the deep end of the spectrum is Stephen, Leon, Jaco and several others who are clearly incapable of grasping even the most basic principles of good taxation and government. They retch at the very word. The aliens decide that these libertarians need help - corrective education, restrictive diets, anti-libertarian medications and supervision in all things public. That way they will fit in better with the broader communities they live in. You as a libertarian have an owner / guardian who controls your income and makes sure you pay your taxes and spend nothing on pet projects like annual seminars or monthly dinner gatherings. You are regularly told to act normal, for example by voting when everyone else does. You are totally unable to get any employment due to your status, even though you would excel at many things, things that normal people hate and would be too glad to leave to you, like economics. You are not considered fully developed or sufficiently the same as others to be let loose on society unsupervised.
This is what we've done to autistic people.
If you think I'm exaggerating, look up the unemployment rate for people with Aspergers / high-functioning autism. All human beings (and possibly many animals) should be free and everyone should be able to speak for themselves. In Roman-Dutch law it is said that even the craziest man sometimes has a lucid moment, therefore a man's insanity is not in and of itself automatic grounds for annulment of a contract. I think the Romans were in many respects superior even to the cutting edge of modern legal philosophy. We can learn something from their legal system... as long as we read around the blatant sexism, of course. My point is that I do not think anyone or anything should be represented without their consent... which brings us back to the point of how best to deal with consent where it is difficult, questionable or impossible i.e. children, people in comas, sentient animals, swarms of bees, etc...
Stephen.
On Jul 28, 2024, at 09:20, Stephen vJ <
sjaar...@gmail.com> wrote:
One reason this topic is so important is that it is not just theoretical, but has tangible real-world implications. The ownership or stewardship idea has been applied, for example, to autistic people and in particular non-verbal autistic people. Many have been assigned a representative or assumed to be under such representation by their parents or doctors. These "owners" often see autism as an illness, something to be solved or cured or a problem to be dealt with, whereas the autistic person often likes who they are and just want to be liked and loved, like anyone else. Many autistic people have incredible skills and would prefer others to focus on those, rather than their so-called shortcomings. I say so-called, because giving speeches and shaking hands are only considered important by that loud minority called extrovert, and who is to say they're not the dysfunctional weird ones ? For decades now so-called normal people have claimed to know what is best for their autistic wards and from what I can see those wards are sick of it.