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Live and Let Live Movement

Description​

The Live and Let Live Movement is a global peace initiative fostering an international network of individuals who agree to not initiate aggression and who aspire to be civil.

Discussion​

Context​

Rather than engaging in voluntary association with others, most adults in today’s world accept institutions forcing them to live, or die, in certain ways. Such force, whether by expropriating one’s resources, restricting human action or ending human life, aggresses upon the individual. - Live and Let Live White Paper

Here, to aggress means to negate self-sovereignty or, in other words, deny another's self-ownership.

The Live and Let Live Movement (or, 3L) considers people who are aggressed upon are not people who are free. Accordingly, the movement offers an alternative to the many institutions, including political institutions, which directly or passively support some people aggressing upon others.

Using the law to force people to follow certain values or to behave with certain characteristics, even in the interests of peace, can never lead to peace. - A Voluntary Peace

3L seeks peace through two fundamental but distinct principles:

  1. one must not aggress (a Legal Principle); and
  2. everyone should strive for excellence (a Moral Principle).

What does Aggressing look like?​

3L typically classifies aggressing among eight forms, those being:

  1. initiating nonconsensual physical force against someone or what has been justly acquired;
  2. engaging in fraud;
  3. engaging in coercion;
  4. creating a substantial risk or threat of initiating nonconsensual physical force against another person or what has been justly acquired;
  5. compromising due process;
  6. breaching a contract;
  7. engaging in unreasonable conduct causing harm to another person or causing nonconsensual physical force against what has been justly acquired; and
  8. breaching a fiduciary duty.

At their core, all eight forms spawn from self-ownership. Refraining from engaging in any of those forms respects self-sovereignty.

The Live and Let Live Community​

3L is spearheaded by a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Arizona, United States.

That non-profit, the Live and Let Live Community pursues a mission for everyone to live in any peaceful way they choose.

Anybody who agrees that everyone should be able to live in any peaceful way they choose must necessarily agree that everyone should have the opportunity to make decisions based upon all choices freely available to them. When one’s freedom of choice is restricted, one does not have the option to live in any peaceful way they choose. As such, freedom of choice is a requirement for people to live in peace. - The Live and Let Live Movement: Choose Peace

As freedom is the only viable path to peace, reducing the ways in which humans aggress upon one another is the priority. The Legal Principle offers a practical solution to reducing the potential to aggress. Once freedom becomes more commonplace, the Moral Principle offers a path to reach meaningful peace. Culture, not institutions, will get us to peace. Live and Let Live is committed to fostering that culture. - An Optional Extra to Political Philosophy

Implementation​

Live and Let Live White Paper (ver 0.6.6)​

4.2: Under the Live and Let Live Movement, the Legal Principle is mandatory... The Live and Let Live Movement is neither anti-government nor anti-rules. The movement is pro-peace and, consequentially, anti-aggressing. All individuals are held to the standard of the Legal Principle, including collectives of individuals such as corporations, political parties, governments and all organs of the state.

5.1: ...the Live and Let Live Movement seeks to inspire a critical mass of people supporting the Legal Principle as a way to reduce the incentives for aggressing within legal frameworks, not least the frameworks enacted through political institutions.

5.2: ...the Live and Let Live Movement follows a cultural strategy to communicate self-sovereignty and peace as mainstream, achievable and welfare-increasing concepts. The strategy is founded on three pillars:

  1. “Awareness” concerns bespoke communication methods to convey the Movement and its two principles to people in an effective manner. A key component of this pillar is the unifying nature of the Live and Let Live Movement to reconcile people’s differences;
  2. “Belonging” refers to the facilitation of networks and communities, comprised of individuals who agree with the goals of removing aggressing models of human interaction and striving for peace. The interdependence among individuals and communities strengthens the incentives to assist people in their personal ambitions, business interests and in addressing wider social priorities; and
  3. “Change” supports individuals as they seek to implement the Legal Principle in human interactions.

6.1: A ground-up approach concerns the early adopters of the Live and Let Live Movement using the Legal Principle to assist in addressing personal ambitions as well as assist in resolving social priorities such as homelessness, environmental protection, access to healthcare and business pursuits. Such endeavors are supported through the networks and opportunities enabled by the pillar of Belonging.

6.2: ...individuals operating within political institutions who align with the Live and Let Live Movement can reduce the extent of aggressing to a greater degree than if individuals who do not adopt the Legal Principle remain with political influence. Importantly, the top-down direction facilitates ground up initiatives by increasing the scope within which the Legal Principle may be implemented outside of existing aggressing models of human interaction.

7.2: The omission of moral standards from the Legal Principle is what supports a free model of human interaction... the Live and Let Live Movement concerns a second complementary and option principle alongside the Legal Principle. This is the Moral Principle of striving for excellence. More fundamentally, the Live and Let Live’s Moral Principle is to aspire to be a decent individual of genuine civility... Practicing civility within an environment of self-sovereignty is a direct path to peace.

The Live and Let Live Engine​

The 3L Engine is an "encyclopedia to explore and contribute to Live and Let Live. This project is inspired by the forthcoming book The Live and Let Live Philosophy by Marc J. Victor. The encyclopedia was originally compiled by Robbie Miles and is currently managed in GitHub by the Live and Let Live Community, a 501(c)(3) public charity."

One of the goals of the 3L Engine is to convey ideas of the Live and Let Live Movement in an easily-digestible format for a broad range of stakeholders... The 3L Engine is reserved for exploration of, and the discovery of solutions based on, the Legal Principle and the Moral Principle. The open source nature of the 3L Engine invites input among the variation of humans including as but not limited to people of distinct cultures, languages, social priorities and political realities. - About this Project (3L Engine)

The 3L Engine and AppFraa, in fact, are complementary to one another with the former laying out the aspirations and theory in the interests of freedom and peace and the latter focusing on the options for technical implementation under governance frameworks.

Further Resources​