05.05 – Individual Sovereignty

Natural Hygiene affirms that everyone is a sovereign entity unto him or herself. To be sovereign is to own, control, and govern yourself. Sovereign, literally translated, means ‘ruler of self’. It is based on the premise of Self-Ownership: You own and control yourself. This is obviously true. During your adult life on Earth, if you do not own and control your mind and body, who does?

To be sovereign is to be autonomous, independent, able to choose. And free to carry out that choice, as you desire.

Everyone should be entirely free, unrestrained in any way, within the context of enlightened self-interest. Everyone must have the liberty to do whatever they choose to do, as long as their actions do not impinge on the equal freedoms and rights of others.

Equal Freedoms and Rights is a very important principle to be firmly upheld for any enlightened society to thrive. If freedom and liberty are to flourish across the land, it is required that no one shall have more rights or less rights than any other. To be morally consistent, the equal rights requirement must also apply to government ‘authority,’ or any other so-called ‘authority’. Those who work within government, along with those in any other social or business institution, shall not have any right that all other free men and women do not have. Equal rights means equal rights… for everyone… across all of humanity.

Further, it should be understood that the opposite of freedom is slavery. It is commonly believed that slavery has been abolished. It has not. In fact, it has merely changed face. The core of this extremely important issue can be easily understood by examining the definition of slavery:

Any claim of authority over another human being is a claim of ownership and control of the mind, body, actions, property, and/or productivity of that human being. This is slavery.

In any situation, how can you tell if slavery exists?

If someone can impose demands and restrictions on your life, without your consent, that would make you their slave.

As you can see, slavery continues in everyone’s life, primarily in the form of ruling government authority. Those in government continually impose restrictions and demands upon others, with out their informed consent. This is clearly wrong, illegitimate, and immoral. To get to the true cause of the vast majority of societal problems in our world, it is necessary to ponder this issue deeply, and see the truth of it.

Forceful aggression of one person against another must never be tolerated, except in the case of self defense. Along with our inherent birthright of freedom from restraint and liberty to act, comes the requirement of full accountability and self-responsibility for all our actions. Behaving in this virtuous manner assures maximum freedom for everyone.

Every man and woman must be regarded as capable of carrying on life’s affairs for himself or herself. It is not your role to judge or impose on others, but simply to help if your assistance is sought. You should not impose yourself on anyone no matter how wise or unwise, or how good or bad such imposition is or would be. The most you can do is teach by word, and by example. The power of persuasion is the main tool in your toolkit. You must give to everyone the prerogative to lead their lives as they desire, so long as their pursuits do not harm or impinge upon the equal rights of others. This Golden Rule is the universal rule of moral conduct.

We must always respect everyone as supremely sovereign. Whatever people decide or do, however good or unproductive their decisions and actions, the role of non-interference is primary… as long as harm is not being done to another. Instead, seek to inspire, teach, and motivate.

Individual liberty, freedom, and sovereignty will be more comprehensively addressed in Course 10 of the NHEP.