I dont want to play anymore : How I embraced Voluntaryism

It was only a bit over a year ago that the most amazing thing happened to me, and it changed my life forever.

I've always been very conservative minded, not only in politics - but also in fiscal responsibility. I grew up in a household full of "work hard until you die", "you can't spend more than what you have" and "they're over there fighting for your freedom". I believed in these things wholeheartedly, and because of that, i did what i was 'supposed' to - i supported the republican party. The party of warmongers and conservative spending habits. It wasnt until 2003, when the Iraq war took hold, that i started questioning the motives of the Republican party.

Flash forward twelve years, to 2015. I'm angry - furious even. For the past 2 years I've watched as the Republican party - my party - sells out on nearly every principle that brought me to it, and worse yet, they're selling out in order to bend to the will of the left. I've had it, this party doesn't represent me any longer. Not even close.

So what do I do? Why, what any 30 year old would do when they're pissed off about something. I jumped on facebook, to proclaim my miseries to the world. Happy about what I've written, i decide to go for shock value. I finish my post with the words; " I'm starting to believe that anarchy is the only way".

I know, crazy right?

Just so you understand, anarchy to me was chaos. Anarchy was The Purge. I only knew what I saw in movies, and I was ok with it being portrayed that way, I mean, because shock value.

It was then that a long time friend of mine mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, throwing me a 'like', and a brief intro into Voluntaryism. A philosophy that says that every man or woman is an individual, and should be looked at as such.

At it's core, voluntaryism is the idea that no person has the authority to control another person's life, and that all interaction should be voluntary - completely void of outside intervention. We do not believe in utilizing the state to create a desired result. In fact, we see the state for what it is - an institution that uses coercive force to motivate it's subjects into compliance. Using the principles of non-aggression as a set of guidelines, voluntaryists see the world in a completely different light.

Do as you will, yet harm none in the process.

At the heart of all of this, and the similarities can be seen throughout, is the free market. Voluntaryists believe that the market should work just as our everyday lives should work, autonomously - completely void of regulatory interference and currency manipulation. This has always been my view, so it was just a happy coincidence that it was a staple of voluntaryism as well.

This new world spoke to me. It WAS me. The people that hold this philosophy dear are everyone. They are you and I. They look at you as an individual, and make judgements accordingly. Voluntaryism challenged me to look past the collective stereotypes, and see people for who they really are. This philosophy opened up a door for me, in which every person on the other side was a potential friend. I saw things in myself that i had never knew previously existed. I saw peace - i saw love - and i found hope.