ELI ON THE VIRTUE OF VIOLENCE AND NECESSITY OF AGGRESSION —“What I think I can

ELI ON THE VIRTUE OF VIOLENCE AND NECESSITY OF AGGRESSION

—“What I think I can enforce – and benefit from enforcing – is a prohibition against negative sum aggression (involuntary transfers) and a mandate for positive sum aggression (the suppression of free-riding.)

Even private property is a form of aggression. Fencing off unowned land, formerly free for use by all, and announcing that – henceforth – trespass will be punished by violence, is inherently an aggressive act. Property is a social construct. Using violence to uphold a social construct is aggression.

This is not an argument against private property, this is an argument for aggression.”— Eli Harman

Aggression and violence are value neutral. The only question that matters is whether one is constructing property rights – the prohibition on free riding – such that we have the incentive and ability to develop a division of knowledge and labor. That division of labor compresses time, and increases productivity, such that through constant competition we can cooperate for the purpose of constantly decreasing prices – costs to us.

Aggression and violence in the construction of property rights is not only a virtue it is arguably the highest most productive virtue than man can pursue.