National Libertarian membership Pledge

The National Libertarian membership Pledge states: "I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT I DO NOT BELIEVE IN OR ADVOCATE THE INITIATION OF FORCE AS A MEANS OF ACHIEVING POLITICAL OR SOCIAL GOALS."

I am a fairly vocal opponent of this Pledge. I have several reasons for disliking this "Pledge." I was recently contacted by a Libertarian who reads this blog. He convinced me that one of my reasons is WRONG. After thinking about it, he is 100% right, one of my reasons is 100% wrong.

I have been using a false argument to oppose "The Pledge" for some period of time. I plan on discussing it further in this post.

One of the reasons I have previously used when explaining why I dislike "The Pledge" was because I felt that it would prevent those who signed it from overthrowing an oppressive and unconscionable government.

I was mis-understanding the word "initiation."

If my government ever decided to 100% ignore The Constitution and became extremely oppressive then it is obvious that the government has "initiated" force with me and I could obviously respond to defend myself.

Believe it or not, I never thought about it that way.

I am glad that one of my readers contacted me and explained it to me! I am not going to use that argument again; it is not a valid argument...

I still have reasons why I oppose "The Pledge." The above reason is no longer one of them...

I encourage EVERYONE who reads this blog to feel free to contact me.

I started this blog to facilitate dialogue... Dialogue should go both ways!

Mike Sylvester