by Steve Cook

Government is created and sustained by the People to provide an overall coordination and order to their individual, group and community endeavours so as to maintain a  safe environment that helps them flourish and prosper.

Government serves the people in that regard by providing key services such as infrastructure, just laws and a stable means of exchange.

In so doing, it behooves the government to treat its citizens with good manners, dignity and respect. There is neither excuse nor justification to browbeat, intimidate, abuse, deceive or in other ways mistreat the citizen.

It is the role of government to provide specific services (discussed elsewhere) to the  People. That role  does not include  dictating what the citizenry may know or think.

Accordingly, it shall be rendered illegal for the government to inhibit or prevent the communication of ideas between citizens, between groups and between government (which is just another  group of citizens with specialised administrative duties) and the citizens it serves.

It is through communication that we build agreement, affinity and understanding between people and groups at every level.

It is vital  that all citizens retain the inviolable right to speak and write freely and express opinions.

It shall be illegal  for anyone to prevent the full exercise of that right.

It is understood that such freedoms can be at times abused by persons of low responsibility or criminal intent. It is also understood that abuses of such freedoms are rare  in that the overwhelming majority of people apply them responsibly. It is folly to inhibit the freedoms of the majority using the excuse that a minority might abuse them.

However, serious abuses of the right to free communication, become serious to the degree that they constitute the carrying out of criminal acts already broadly agreed upon as undesirable and accordingly prohibited by just laws, such as murder, blackmail,  extortion, fraud, assault, treason, child abuse,  human trafficking, indecent behaviour and so forth and the planning or incitement of such commonly detested crimes.

Such crimes must be investigated and dealt with by the police and justice system in the usual way.

It must be stressed that freedom of communication does not extend to abuses thereof that by our mores and customs are recognised as unacceptable. These include child abuse, pornography, slander and so on. Such communications are already proscribed by just laws. Thus specific, clearly defined types of communication are prohibited and policed.  Any government wishing to change existing laws to exclude from or add specific communications to  the list of those deemed unlawful  MUST  first have declared its intent in its manifesto and receive a mandate from the People. The concepts of legally binding manifestos and probationary periods for new laws will be discussed in subsequent essays.

It may not be deemed a crime or punishable offence to criticise or doubt or question or express opinions about the actions and policies of government or any public or corporate body. To attempt to censor, censure or punish such communication is itself a crime that renders the perpetrator liable to prosecution.

Similarly, the government may not withhold from the People their inviolable right to hold peaceful protests or demonstrations. To attempt to do so is itself a crime that renders the perpetrator liable to prosecution.

Moreover if the government wishes to counter what it considers to be false information on the part of any citizen or group of citizens, it may not censor that information or inhibit anyone’s right to communicate it, particularly as the persons communicating that information may well be doing so in good faith from their point of view. The correct response shall be for the government to put out what it considers to be true information. It will then be for the citizenry to evaluate the information for themselves and decide which is true.

At the same time it shall be illegal for  any government department or any corporate, media or business entity to put out information that they know to be false, particularly where the false information causes material harm to occur. Similarly, it shall be illegal for any person or group to advise the government by giving it knowingly false information.

It shall remain the right of all persons to express opinions provided  opinions are clearly labelled a such and not disguised as facts.

All these stipulations apply to the social media

A government that fears some person or group expressing what it considers to be “extreme” views that might cause unrest or topple it should reflect that a country that is well and fairly governed with good justice and which works for the People to provide a safe environment for them cannot be destabilised or toppled by a few rabble rousers making noise. Where widespread unrest is  easy to stir up, the government must look at what it has been doing to place  itself in such a weak position vis a vis the affinity of its citizens.

Governments weak enough to be easily prey to  unrest and so despised that their own citizenry will not rise to their defence have placed themselves in such danger by corrupt, unjust, incompetent or unethical governance. The solution is for them to get honest and straight and adopt just policies that will bring that about and prevent them getting into danger in the future.

It is hoped that this project will help evolve a manifesto that will help that effort.

PREVIOUS ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES

PART ONE – PEOPLE’S MANIFESTO

PART TWO – FIRST, SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES

PART THREE  – REMOVING THE BURDENS OF TAX AND DEBT

PART FOUR – REMOVING HIDDEN INFLUENCES

YA GOTTA PRODUCE! BACK TO BASICS

PART FIVE – TRUTHFUL ACCOUNTING

MORE TO FOLLOW

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please visit Steve Cook

The above was first published on UK Reloaded

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

••••

The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)

••••

Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.

••••

Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

••••

Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.