The key to global peace has been hiding in plain sight within a phrase that all reasonable people already accept: live and let live (3L). The essential message is revealed in the phrase itself; in order for each of us to be free to live, we must let others live, meaning:
- Allow other people to live in freedom and peace by setting a boundary around permissible behaviour that is fair and agreeable to all reasonable people. We call this boundary of justice the Legal Principle, which simplistically says: ‘don’t aggress!’
Both freedom and peace exist naturally – they are our universal inheritance. It takes effort in the form of aggression to override these invaluable gifts. We could phrase the opposite of the Live and Let Live Philosophy as ‘be right and fight’, where, instead of letting others live freely and peacefully, we fight for the power to coercively impose our subjective version of morality on others. Instead of having the law grounded in the ancient principle of the Golden Rule, the law is based on the capricious whim of those that achieve power; an endless and unjust struggle we call ‘lawfare’.
3L is not a dictation for how to live your life – you are free to choose so long as you don’t impede others’ freedom. Instead, 3L is a blueprint for a better world; a path to peace.
