**Freedom**
The broad trajectory of human freedom has been an evolution towards egalitarianism; from slavery → serfdom → . It has been a meandering path that at times feels like its going backwards, but humanity has increasingly recognized ‘self-ownership’; *you* entirely own your body and *all* your peacefully acquired property.
– Slavery was ubiquitous in many of the ancient civilizations – Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient India, etc, and was accepted for millennia. Rather than self-ownership, some humans were deemed to be the *property* of others. Forced against, their will, we now recognize these slaves as victims of aggression. Emancipation from slavery was a giant leap towards living in a Live and Let Live society.
– Under feudalism, the ‘serfs’ (working peasants) were not deemed to be property, but still were not able to own land; they still lacked equality under the law. The peasant uprisings that demanded these equal freedoms, giving way to upward mobility enabled by capitalism, was the next clear progression. Today, many companies offer Employee Stock Ownership Plans such that the workers and the company’s owners are often the same people.
– In more modern times, Live and Let Live’s lineage includes universal suffrage and civil rights movements and also the Classical Liberal philosophers that deepened our theoretical understanding of humanity’s potential for freedom.
– No country today is totally free. To the extent that people still do not get to keep their peacefully acquired possessions or do not enjoy equality under the law, Live and Let Live picks up the baton for advancing freedom. When all societies benefit from abidance with the Live and Let Live [Legal Principle](https://www.notion.so/Legal-Principle-1451752abde280cbab80dcfdb83c308a?pvs=21), prohibiting all forms of aggression, whether by any person, group, corporation, or government, then all humanity will at last be free at last.
