"The Global Peace Movement Inspiring the World"
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Written by experienced criminal defense attorney, former United States Marine and Live and Let Live Founder Marc J. Victor, Live and Let Live: The Road to Peace Prosperity and Happiness proposes a blueprint on how to interpret, implement and enforce the Live and Let Live Principle to peacefully transition to a world where competent adults both define and pursue their happiness to create a win/win world where we increase happiness while reducing preventable suffering.
It lays out the intellectual framework and legal principles underpinning our transition to a more free and peaceful world in an easily readable and understandable format. The book is scheduled to be released along with the kickoff of the global Live and Let Live Movement in October 2022.
THE LIVE AND LET LIVE GLOBAL PEACE MOVEMENT
The world’s most important endeavor is underway right now and you are invited to join. The Live and Let Live Global Peace Movement is a serious effort undertaken by people worldwide who desire to live together in freedom and peace. We are united by a commitment to oppose all forms of aggression whether instituted by any person, group, organization, or government, and to inspire people to be good humans. We must succeed.
Despite good-faith disagreements on many issues, if we unite around one fundamental principle, we could achieve and maintain freedom and peace in a way that optimizes human happiness and well-being better than ever previously achieved in human history.
Utopia is not a reasonable goal. We should recognize and accept life will never be perfect. However, it could be improved dramatically for the vast majority of people. There is no need to check your ethics, common sense, or reasonable skepticism at the door. If you are open-minded, reasonable, and willing to consider a new paradigm for how we govern ourselves, you may be inspired to join the global effort to achieve freedom and peace.
We each have different opinions, ideas, and beliefs about the world. We also have different interests, aptitudes, goals, and desires. We value things differently. I am happy to offer you my advice about how you should live your life, but because we define our personal happiness differently, I do not know for sure what is in your long-term best interest. As adults, neither of us has any valid claim to be in charge of the other. In that way, we are equal. I absolutely respect your right to be in charge of your life.
Simply recognizing these obvious points defines me as a “live and let live” type of guy. The phrase, “live and let live” best captures the essence of what should be our basic fundamental principle governing how we interact with each other. Imagine a world based on the idea that, instead of attempting to impose our views and our will on each other, we each simply agree to live and let live. It may initially seem too simple a phrase, but we can actually and effectively organize around this phrase, and the important principle it represents, to justly and dramatically optimize human happiness.
What does it mean to simply live and let live? There are actually two distinct, and equally important, imperatives to the principle: 1. “Live” and 2. “Let Live.” The principle’s first imperative seems obvious: Live your life! You are lucky enough to be alive, conscious, and on the planet right now. As with all things, this too will eventually come to an end. Seize the day!
As a competent adult owner of your life, you should be in charge of creating, directing, and organizing your life. You have the right to decide for yourself how best to live your life. That means you alone have the right to both define and peacefully pursue your happiness. You are the rightful owner of your body, all your peacefully acquired property, money, and all your time. As such, you have the right to be the unapologetic iron-fisted dictator of these things.
As the competent adult iron-fisted dictator of your body, property, money, and time, you should be permitted to do anything you want with these with no restrictions at all except for one: the second imperative. To “Let Live” means to simply allow others the same right to be the competent adult iron-fisted dictators of their bodies, property, money, and time. As a prerequisite to achieving freedom and peace, you must allow other competent adults the identical and reciprocal right to live their lives as they see fit with the same one important restriction.
Concerning the “live and let live” principle, some say the devil is in the details. Indeed, we need to decide where to draw the critically important line between living your life and interfering with the equal rights of other competent adults to live their lives. Therefore, we need rules governing how we interact with each other such that we can each live our lives while allowing others to live their lives. Given the infinite number of different types of interactions we can have with each other, we will undoubtedly need lots of rules defining where to draw that critically important line.
There are two hugely different categories of rules: one category comes with a formal sanction for violations and the other does not. For example, the rule prohibiting murder comes with a very serious formal sanction for those properly shown to have violated it. However, the rule requiring youngsters to show respect to their elders does not. While there may be social consequences for failing to respect one’s elders, violating this category of rules properly carries no formal consequence. Viewed differently, some rules, like the rule against murder, we are required to comply with. Other rules, like the rule to respect one’s elders, we are not.
Rules we are required to comply with are generally called legal rules. We use the term “legal” to simply identify the category of rules that carry a formal consequence for violations. The rule prohibiting murder is therefore a legal rule. Legal rules define the mandatory minimum standards of how we must, or must not, act when we interact with each other.
If we are serious about implementing the “live and let live” principle, the law ought to include all the rules necessary to implement both aspects of the principle. Said another way, the law ought to permit competent adults to “live” by being the iron-fisted dictators of their bodies, property, money, and time while also mandating that they allow others to do the same. All laws should be in harmony with the live and let live principle.
How do we determine which rules ought to be legal rules? The rule against murder is properly a legal rule precisely because if you act as the iron-fisted dictator over another person’s body or life, then you have violated the right of that person to be the iron-fisted dictator of their body and life. The rule to respect your elders is not properly a legal rule precisely because if you disrespect an elder person, you have not violated that person’s right to be the iron-fisted dictator of their life. Nobody properly has a legal right to be respected by others. We could identify this type of non-legal rule as a moral rule. In short, legal rules govern how we must act, and moral rules properly govern how we should act. Understanding this critically important difference between the two categories of rules is the key to dramatically improving life on Earth for the vast majority of people.
Moral rules are certainly important. We are not likely to ever achieve peace until we inspire others to act morally to some extent. Unfortunately, we do not all agree, nor are we likely to agree, on morality anytime soon. Fortunately, the consequences of our failure to agree in this area are entirely manageable. We are each free to associate with the friends and business acquaintances we prefer. Disagreements about how we should treat each other are manageable because people, as the iron-fisted dictators of themselves, may act immorally with their own bodies, property, money, or time so long as they do not interfere with the equal rights of other iron-fisted dictators to manage themselves.
To be precise, legal rules are indeed drawn from moral principles. While we do not all agree on the entirety of morality, we can identify a least common denominator of morality that all reasonable people can agree upon that could and should, serve as our legal principle upon which to calibrate all our laws. Regardless of whatever moral code you subscribe to, I suspect your moral code holds acts such as murder, assault, rape, fraud, and theft are wrong. This is so because all reasonable people agree aggression against other people, or their property is wrong. There is no reasonable dispute on this point. As such, we can divide the general live and let live principle into two distinct sub-principles; a legal principle and a moral principle.
The Live and Let Live Legal Principle
To aggress against another person or their property is to violate another person’s right to control their body, property, money, or time. Such a violation always trespasses against a person’s right to live their life. It follows that the law ought to absolutely prohibit all acts of aggression whether committed by any person or any group of people however large. No person, group, organization, corporation, or government should be legally permitted to engage in any form of aggression. In essence, the Live and Let Live Legal Principle (“3L Legal Principle”) could be accurately described with the simple statement, “Don’t be an aggressor!” To properly implement live and let live, all acts of aggression, whether committed by any person or group, should always be illegal.
What is aggression? Aggression certainly includes initiating force against another person or their property, fraud, coercion, as well as doing anything that creates a substantial risk or threat of harm to another person or their property. The 3L Legal Principle, and the laws implementing it, therefore should always absolutely prohibit any of these acts in all cases. We may personally conclude what competent adults do with their bodies, property, money, or time is immoral, unhealthy, unwise, or unwarranted -- but, unless the 3L Legal Principle is violated, their conduct should be legal. On the other hand, if the conduct violates the 3L Legal Principle, it ought to always be illegal.
Another way to more generally describe the 3L Legal Principle is to simply say all voluntary interactions between competent adults ought to be legal, and all involuntary interactions ought to be illegal. Any interaction between people involving unconsented aggression is always involuntary and should therefore always be illegal. Conversely, any interaction between consenting adults not involving aggression is always voluntary and therefore ought to always be legal. Calibrating all our laws to be in harmony with the 3L Legal Principle is the only way we can truly live and let live.
The Live and Let Live Moral Principle
Simply calibrating all our laws to be in harmony with the 3L Legal Principle will result in freedom because all acts of aggression will be outlawed. However, it is possible to refrain from engaging in acts of aggression while still acting in ways that do not foster peace. As an example, neighbors who shout ugly insults at each other from their own property do not violate the 3L Legal Principle because offensive words do not amount to aggression, but they are certainly not living in peace.
To achieve peace, we must inspire others to act in moral ways that foster peace. The Live and Let Live Moral Principle (“3L Moral Principle”) can be accurately described with the simple statement, “Be a good human.” Unlike a legal rule, a moral rule can be totally ignored without any formal consequence. Indeed, as discussed previously, this is the essence of the difference between legal rules and moral rules. Said another way, people ought to be legally permitted to ignore the 3L Moral Principle so long as they comply with the 3L Legal Principle. However, because Live and Let Live is a peace movement, and not merely a freedom movement, we should do our best to inspire people to adhere to the 3L Moral Principle.
What is a good human? While being a good human certainly requires that a person not aggress against others, it also includes aspirational values such as tolerance, open-mindedness, voluntary kindness, civility towards others, a commitment to truth, facts, justice, and rational thought. These aspirational values, and others, are necessary to achieve the overall goals of achieving peace while optimizing human happiness and decreasing human suffering.
Conclusion
The price we must pay to achieve freedom and peace is that we remove even our own moral views from the law. Instead of imposing our morals, we should inspire others to act morally. The law should simply prohibit all forms of aggression by all individuals and groups. When enough people commit their hearts and minds to live and let live, we will actually achieve and maintain a free and peaceful world. Join us and be part of the solution!
What does Live and Let Live mean?
To “live and let live” most fundamentally means to take charge of and responsibility for your life by both defining and peacefully pursuing your own happiness while honoring the equal rights of other competent adults to do the same. The concept is based on a foundational basic principle referred to as the “Live and Let Live Principle.” The Live and Let Live Principle generally holds that it is wrong to initiate force, fraud or coercion. In essence, the Principle prohibits aggression while recognizing the fundamental right of reasonable and responsible self-defense to defend against another’s use or substantial threat of an initiation of aggression. To promote live and let live is to promote freedom and peace for all people.
Why should I agree with the Live and Let Live Principle?
Many people already agree that to initiate force, fraud or coercion is wrong and it should be prohibited. As such, they already agree with The Principle. At its core, The Principle simply asserts that aggression is wrong. Necessarily, the Principle assumes people own themselves and are entitled to peacefully run their lives as they prefer. Many people simply agree with the basic common decency and mutual benefit that naturally flows from prohibiting the initiation of force, fraud and coercion. Additionally, many people reach the same conclusion based on either a natural law analysis or a social contractarian analysis. Not surprisingly, the common denominator and basic tenet of many of the world’s major religions and moral traditions can be distilled down to the Live and Let Live Principle. It’s the first thing reasonable people who disagree on everything else would readily agree on. Upon reflection, many people will agree the Live and Let Live Principle is axiomatic.
Why should I agree with the Live and Let Live Principle?
Does Live and Let Live lead to a big or small government?
The Live and Let Live Principle prohibits aggression whether it
is initiated by an individual, a group of individuals, or a group
of individuals who work for, and act at, the direction of a government. A world where individuals, groups, and governments act in accordance with the Live and Let Live Principle is the goal of our Movement. As such, the Movement welcomes people who prefer big governments, small governments, or no formal government at all. Acceptance of the Live and Let Principle is
the only requirement to join the Movement.
Does Live and Let Live lead to a big or small government?
What are the values in the Live and Let Live movement?
The Live and Let Movement is anchored to the Live and Let Principle as its basic foundational principle. The Live and Let Live Principle is derived from the basic common denominator of the most widely accepted moral, enlightenment and religious traditions. Opposing aggression while promoting freedom and peace are the most basic values of the Movement. Much of the Movement’s efforts seek to align the substantive law to be in harmony with the Live and Let Live Principle. However, as aspirational goals, the Movement advocates for a virtuous and peaceful society by promoting live and let live values such as freedom, equality under law, tolerance, open mindedness, voluntary kindness, rational thought, honesty, civility, and a commitment to pursuing truth. We promote these live and let live values because they facilitate peace and human progress.
What are the values in the Live and Let Live movement?
Is the Live and Let Live Movement Republican or Democratic?
The Live and Let Live Movement is open to both Republicans and Democrats. The Movement welcomes people from any political party and people who are entirely nonpolitical. The only requirement to be a member of the Movement is to accept the Live and Let Live Principle. Both Republicans who value individual liberties and classical liberal Democrats generally already accept the Principle. It is entirely possible to advocate and promote the Live and Live Principle from within either the Republican Party or the Democrat Party.
Is the Live and Let Live Movement Republican or Democratic?
How does the Live and Let Live Principle apply to victimless crimes?
The Live and Let Live Principle applies the same way to all issues. We first determine who is the owner of the property that is at issue. We then apply the Live and Let Principle to analyze whether the Principle is being violated. If the Principle is being violated, then the conduct should be illegal. If not, then the conduct should be legal. This is the conclusion regardless of whether the conduct is immoral. Moral judgments should not be imposed on others by law.
For example, to analyze the question of prostitution, we need only conclude that the prostitute and the customer each fully own themselves. While minors also own themselves, they are not fully competent and therefore have guardians such as parents. If both the prostitute and the customer are competent adults, then each owns and gets to make decisions for himself or herself. Therefore, so long as The Principle is not violated, we can conclude the conduct should be legal.
Had either the prostitute or the customer not been a competent adult, or had force, fraud or coercion been involved, then the conduct should be illegal. Said another way, voluntary transactions between consenting adults should be legal even if they are determined to be immoral. A victim, for purposes of the criminal justice legal system, is someone who suffered a violation of the Live and Let Live Principle.
How does the Live and Let Live Principle apply to victimless crimes?
Is the Live and Let Live Movement Capitalist or Socialist?
The Live and Let Live Movement is open to people who prefer and promote capitalism as well as to people who prefer and promote voluntary socialism. Nobody should be forced to do anything other than to comply with the Live and Let Live Principle. As such, the Movement is open to people who personally prefer either economic system or a mix of both. Competent adults should be free to choose how they peacefully live as well as how they peacefully acquire, hold, trade and dispose of their property.
Is the Live and Let Live Movement Capitalist or Socialist?
How does the Live and Let Live Principle apply to guns?
As with all issues, competent adults should have the right to do whatever they want so long as they don’t violate The Live and Let Live Principle. As with all issues, we simply seek to fairly and honestly determine whether The Principle has been violated.
If so, the conduct should be illegal. If not, the conduct should be legally permitted even if determined immoral.
As with all other issues, unless and until a competent adult who possesses a gun violates The Principle, that person should be left alone. As such, the peaceful, responsible, competent, adult gun owner has a right to be left alone.
However, people who are not competent to safely handle guns and people who have a history of violating The Principle reasonably pose a substantial risk of violating the Principle.
As with self-defense, people are not required to wait until another’s fist hits their face before using appropriate force in defense. Likewise, it is always appropriate to stop or prohibit a substantial threat of violating The Principle.
As such, laws could appropriately prohibit gun possession by minors, incompetent adults and violent felons. Precisely defining the contours and edges of words such as “substantial” “minors” “competent” and “violent” may reasonably vary by community as they do now. We analyze all issues around compliance with
The Principle.
How does the Live and Let Live Principle apply to guns?
How does the Live and Let Live Principle apply
to taxes?
The Live and Let Live Principle applies the same way to all issues. We first determine who is the owner of the property that is at issue. We then apply the Live and Let Principle to analyze whether the Principle is being violated. If the Principle is being violated, then the conduct should be illegal. If not, then the conduct should be legal. The issue of taxes involves the government involuntarily taking money from individuals. It is easy to determine the actual and rightful owner of the money at issue is the individual. Because The Principle applies the same way to individuals, groups, and governments, it’s easy to conclude that by involuntarily taking an individual’s money, the government violates The Principle. The Live and Let Movement advocates for a world where all aggression is illegal. We believe a civilized, productive, and virtuous society can be achieved without legally permitting aggression for any purpose. Indeed, creative people have always found non-coercive solutions to problems. That aggression (i.e. taxes) may be the easiest way to envision realizing a particular goal does not make it permissible. While we work towards a world without aggression,
we cheer any move towards less aggression in any area such
as taxation.
How does the Live and Let Live Principle apply
to taxes?
Who is the Live and Let Live Movement open to?
The Live and Let Live Movement is open to all people who accept the Live and Let Live Principle. The Movement welcomes people of all countries, all races, all national origins, any economic status, any sexual orientation, all faiths and people of no faith. Any person who truly accepts the Live and Let Principle is welcome and encouraged to join the Movement.
Why is the Live and Let Live Movement a global movement?
Regardless of whether one prefers globalism, we now live in a global community that is here to stay. Global trade, global travel, global data tracking, and surveillance, and multinational corporations are increasingly common. We face many global issues such as climate change, species contraction, global pandemics, the development of artificial intelligence and other technologies, gene replication and modification, nuclear and biological weapons as well as many other issues both foreseeable and unforeseeable. We urgently need to stop fighting each other and better coordinate ways to peacefully live together while rationally, effectively, and justly dealing with the upcoming issues that threaten us as a species.
Why is the Live and Let Live Movement a global movement?
What type of movement is the Live and Let Live Movement?
The Live and Let Live Movement seeks to peacefully win enough hearts and minds, based on the logic, reason, and morality of the Live and Let Live Principle, to improve the world for all people.
It is a global movement open to all people who value freedom
and peace by opposing aggression. Through discussion and debate, the written word, numerous conferences, political action, and the peaceful efforts of likeminded people, the Movement seeks to inspire enough people to eventually achieve a free
and peaceful world that maximizes human happiness while
decreasing suffering.
What type of movement is the Live and Let Live Movement?
How do I support the Live and Let Live Movement?
People who accept and promote the Live and Let Live Movement are a varied group necessarily possessing different skills, talents, preferences and inclinations. Some people are well suited to write and speak to promote our philosophy. We encourage and are happy to assist with most writing or speaking projects. We are happy to coordinate efforts with people desiring to hold conferences to promote the Movement. We host a blog on our website to facilitate discussion. Simply referring people to www.LiveandLetLive.org for more information is also strongly encouraged. People can support our Movement by donating money to help promote the Movement. 100% of all donations are used solely to promote the Movement. More people living their lives in accordance with the Live and Let Live Principle is our best advertising as well as our ultimate goal.