People always say that governments and political parties are all alike, that voting for any party is akin to voting for another. That the choice is between thieves and fascists with no grey area in between. I feel the reason for this is because we have never stated what sort of government we do want.

Just so there’s no confusion, the sort of government I want is the kind that upholds the following principle:
Respect and uphold my privacy: There are certain areas of my life that you have no jurisdiction over. These include but are not limited to the following:

a) Anything I say as a private individual. The only requirement for me to fall under this is to preface my speech by saying “I state this as my personal opinion.” After this, I could state anything. It does not matter if I am advocating Hitlerian philosophies of anti-semitic genocide, or advocating Socialism as the one true economic hope of the nation. IT IS PROTECTED SPEECH NO MATTER WHAT MEDIUM I CHOOSE TO EXPRESS IT. If I bought a billboard and exhorted people to drown kittens it would be OK if I placed the seven words above: “I state this as my personal opinion.” No exceptions, ever.

b) Anything I do with another consenting adult: The definition of consenting adult is another human being over the age of 18, who is in full posession of the facts of the act that they and I are consenting to and who is, medically and permanently considered to be baseline normal, psychologically and biologically. This extends to groups of adults in the above situation and, just to be clear, the emphasis is laid on WHEN the choice to consent is made. Any actions taken place when (provably) not in the above state, full punishment and / or responsibility can occur. So drinking and driving, date rape drugs and doing reckless shit is still bad, mmkay?

c) Any violations of the above WHETHER BY MEMBERS OF THE STATE OR NOT are punished severely. So if a group of ‘concerned citizens’ took offense at my holding a sex orgy within the privacy of my house, where only (provably) consenting adults attended, they would be in the wrong if they stopped me. Ditto raves (under the same circumstances) and any other activity upto and including plotting treason against the governmentg. (ACTS of treason, however, are a different kettle of fish altogether)

That’s it. I feel if we grasped – truly grasped and stood by these principles that’s all we’d really need to progress as a nation.