Finding the Place of Peace
The importance of a "faith" of nonaggression
by Brian Wright
In several previous columns—here's a long one (but a thorough one)—I've referred to developing a SNaP (Sacred Nonaggression Principle) religion as perhaps the best way to turn the freedom movement viral. I even recall asking for contributions to seed such a church or religion... though a half-an-hour search does not turn up any particular column, dammit! This column proceeds in that vein. The image here on the right is from my seventh module of the Liberation Technology (SNaP) series of education modules; I'll finish the Nonaggression Faith book by April of 2011.
One of my readers responded to that 'church of nonaggression' idea (from the column where I sought seed funding) as "already been there, already done that." He seemed to say where did I get off arguing that my religion of nonaggression was somehow new or innovative: "By golly, many freedom people—himself included—have long defied the Social Security Act by claiming 'my religion doesn't use Social Security.'" ['n' stuff.] Fair enough, I certainly realize I'm not the first or the last libertarian to suggest putting religious faith in service to the ideals of the nonaggression principle (NaP). However, I do have something unique in mind for "The Church of the SNaP" on a grand, systematic scale... and I believe the time is ripe.
The Spiritual Dimension of Nonaggression
Before going into more specific construction of such a church/religion, however, let me prepare the ground by noting that
the freedom movement and spiritual consciousness have a direct relationship. In Libtech Module #4: The Barrier Cloud, I describe the importance of spiritual awareness in overcoming the internal cause of the cloud:
[The Jesus Salient] is the term I came up with as the best expression for the combination of reason and spiritual growth standing the best chance to cure "stunted limbic system processing"... and penetrate the Barrier Cloud, one consciousness at a time...
That's why I see the best route for disrupting the antihuman carrier frequency of the stunted limbic system as "spiritual awakening." As a practical matter, millions of people see Jesus as the supreme spiritual teacher. So I'm invoking him to sell spiritual growth in a rational direction....
Then I end the fourth module with a series of parables and other sayings attributed to Jesus, drawn from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now. These admonishments carry extreme power of presence; through their practice a person may experience "a felt oneness with Being..." that is, "enlightenment." IHRCB[1] that that state of connection, a place of immense inner peace, is the human ideal—the ultimate ideal for any sentient being—transcending any goals we may seek in the material world. At the same time, we most efficiently achieve our material goals—in this case political liberty—by encouraging such spiritual consciousness in all.
Liberty (the nonaggression principle) flows as an integral product of spiritual consciousness. It doesn't work so well the other way: intellectual argument and presentation of the nonaggression principle so often become divorced from the spiritual dimension, they can easily appear as compulsive or judgmental attacks, generating resistance per the Law of Opposites.[2]
[My freedom movement colleagues are familiar with the phenomenon.] So what is the new strategy for achieving liberty? It is to achieve presence, then share it... at the level of Being. Project your inner joy upon the world: "Your whole body will be filled with light..." and people will be inexorably drawn to that 'place of peace.' Liberty follows.
The Arguments Still Matter
No need for us to give up on learning and stating our understandings of the issues of the day, describing the exciting and life-affirming benefits of the nonaggression principle vs. the Death Star of statism. Let me also plug my same Barrier Cloud book, which describes the
two fundamental causes of what stands in the way of our destiny... of a benevolent
society without coercion. That exterior cause of Barrier Cloud, the Patharchy, is particularly menacing and powerful these days... though desperate. We still need to practice acceptance in its regard, not put our heads in the sand, it exists.
... it isn't too much of a stretch to sit down and establish a simple, secular religion that holds as its highest principle that humans do not initiate force against one another.
A very important premise of such a system of belief would be that no citizen can voluntarily and in good conscience support any act of government that aggresses against its citizens... or against anyone else.
So immediately one has a moral, religious foundation for defying any state coercive intrusion, such as a tax. Voluntary funding is fine. Taxes qua aggression our religion does not accept. Our people cannot comply.
The patharchy is turning up the heat—with continuation of empire, of torture, of genocide, of mass detentions, of police-state excesses of every color and variety. We the people need a religion that
stands firm and takes the moral/spiritual high ground; some urgency does exist.
Coming Soon
Name: Church of Being (Beists). Metaphysical doctrine: natural reason and the nonaggression principle. Moral practice: noncompliance with significant acts of coercive government. Practical effect: by opposing those acts en masse, on moral grounds, ending them in the near term (<2015). Community and ethical practice: guidance for young people to live ethically and recognize morality as a necessity of survival, also to provide continuing human connection in celebration of life, reason, freedom, joy. Sacraments to be accompanied by love, laughter, singing, dancing. Funding: possible low-fee global network marketing in cyberspace, charitable haven with offerings in local human-reality space. Viral focus: flat, solid, distributed, participatory structure with lowest-common-denominator mass appeal.
[1] IHRCB = I have recently come to believe
[2] "Love, joy, and peace are deep states of Being or rather three aspects of the state of inner connectedness with Being. As such, they have no opposite. This is because they arise from beyond the mind. Emotions, on the other hand, being part of the dualistic mind, are subject to the law of opposites. This simply means that you cannot have good without bad. So in the unenlightened, mind-identified condition, what is sometimes wrongly called joy is the usually short-lived pleasure side of the continuously alternating pain/pleasure cycle. Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within."
