{"id":763,"date":"2013-10-02T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T18:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/?p=763"},"modified":"2013-10-02T14:46:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T18:46:09","slug":"can-you-legislate-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeroaggressionproject.org\/uncategorized\/can-you-legislate-morality\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you legislate morality?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some people argue against legislating morality, but what about things like theft and murder? The confusion disappears if we distinguish between&#8230;.<br \/>\n<strong>Social Morality and Personal Morality<\/strong><br \/>\nSome moral principles govern how we treat each other. This is <strong>social morality<\/strong> . It includes standards like &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Reciprocity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/heuristic\/reciprocity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Golden Rule:<\/strong><\/a> Respect the <a title=\"Conscience \" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/heuristic\/conscience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>conscience<\/strong><\/a> of others, as you desire them to respect your conscience.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"The Zero Aggression Principle\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/heuristic\/zero-aggression-principle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Zero Aggression Principle:<\/strong><\/a> Don\u2019t tread on <em><strong>others<\/strong><\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These ideas lead to <a title=\"Sovereign Law\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/heuristic\/sovereign-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>laws<\/strong><\/a> against assaults, murder, fraud, and theft. Nearly everyone supports these rules &#8212; <em>even Adolf Hitler thought it would be wrong to kill him or to steal his property.<\/em><br \/>\nIn contrast to this are values that govern how we treat ourselves&#8230;.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What we ingest<\/li>\n<li>How we worship<\/li>\n<li>What we wear<\/li>\n<li>How we have sex<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There\u2019s far less agreement about this kind of morality. It\u2019s highly <em>personal<\/em>. So I call it <strong>personal morality<\/strong> .<br \/>\n<strong>Here\u2019s the crucial point&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Imposing your personal morality on others requires you to <a title=\"Initiated Force\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/heuristic\/initiated-force\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>initiate force<\/strong><\/a> against them.<\/li>\n<li>You must tread on their personal conscience.<\/li>\n<li>Doing this violates social morality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Some people may consider this a good trade, but&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What you can do to others, others can do to you.<\/li>\n<li>When you empower politicians to impose personal morality, the morality they prefer to impose will RARELY be yours.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>This is your choice&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Do you want the law to enforce social morality, or someone\u2019s version of personal morality? It cannot do both.<\/p>\n<p>If you encourage politicians to enforce personal morality then <em>they must tread on others<\/em>. But&#8230;.<br \/>\nIf you <a title=\"Zero Aggression is NOT Pacifism \" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/heuristic\/zero-aggression-not-pacifism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>restrict coercion to the enforcement of social morality<\/strong><\/a>, you can still use <a title=\"Persuasion\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zeroaggressionproject.org\/heuristic\/persuasion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>persuasion<\/strong><\/a> to promote your personal values.<br \/>\nIsn\u2019t that the correct path? Isn\u2019t peaceful persuasion the only socially moral way to promote your personal morality?<br \/>\nTeaching this distinction between social morality and personal morality is important. We hope you decide to adopt and share this concept. You can do that right now using Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.<br \/>\nPlease also consider subscribing to our free email newsletter using the subscription form in the right-hand column. You&#8217;ll be able to follow along as we work to share the Zero Aggression Principle with all 300 million Americans (and the rest of the world too).<br \/>\nPlease also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Click on the \u00a0&#8220;Follow Us&#8221; buttons at the top of the page, above the banner. When you get to our Facebook page click on the &#8220;like&#8221; button and then choose &#8220;get notifications&#8221; and &#8220;add us to your interest lists.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We must understand the crucial distinction between social morality and personal morality. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,34,26,18,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can you legislate morality? - ZAP - Zero Aggression Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some people argue against legislating morality, but a distinction must be made between social morality and personal morality.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zeroaggressionproject.org\/uncategorized\/can-you-legislate-morality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can you legislate morality?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some people argue against legislating morality, but a distinction must be made between social morality and personal morality.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/zeroaggressionproject.org\/uncategorized\/can-you-legislate-morality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ZAP - Zero Aggression Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/perry.willis.31\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-02T18:46:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Perry Willis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/zeroaggressionproject.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Scales-Balance-Image-iStock_000003740755XSmall.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/PerryWWillis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Perry Willis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/zeroaggressionproject.org\/uncategorized\/can-you-legislate-morality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/zeroaggressionproject.org\/uncategorized\/can-you-legislate-morality\/\",\"name\":\"Can you legislate morality? 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