Reciprocal Applicability

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that, when a person seeks to inflict some harm on another, the theory of Reciprocal Applicability is invoked. This concept of Reciprocal Applicability simply means, if one party applies an idea, status or action on or to another, that other has the reciprocal right to apply the same to the first person. This idea has profound implications for a better functioning of society. We live in society and can benefit by it, or at least avoid loss from it.

It is just common sense. If a lion attacks you then you have every right and entitlement to kill that lion. Take it a step further, and if the “Son of Sam” tries to kill you, you have every right and entitlement to kill him. In fact, you have not only a right but a duty, to kill the turd. Society and civilization are relieved of a burden, at his death at the hands, of one of his very own victims. If a bully seeks to beat you up you have the right to beat him up. To the very limit he would have beaten you. The very fact that, a bully might meet up with a righteous man who is only restrained by his ethos to the extent of Reciprocal Applicability, is a restraining factor. Such a man or woman would come as a rare and dangerous surprise to the villain.

This is codified into common law. Most countries recognize that if a person breaks into your home, and tries to kill you, you have the right to use deadly force to stop them. This is simply another way of explaining a facet of the theory of Reciprocal Applicability.

Reciprocal Applicability is the basis for the United States Constitutional Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms. What good is a gun if a person is barred from using it in self defense. The right to keep and bear arms is the Founding Father’s application of the right of Reciprocal Applicability. This was understood when people lived close to the land. Not as much as farmers, close to the land means, close to reality, as opposed to today, where people are so removed from reality they seek to hug lions, tigers and bears.

The concept goes beyond mere self defense. It extends to interactions within society. It can be said to be the basis for courtesy. We are courteous to others, not as an intrinsic attribute of them or us, but as an extrinsic attribute to the society in which we live, that we be treated with, at least the courtesy we bestow on others. That others do not follow the idea of reciprocity, shows they, not the courteous, are deficient in manners and civilization.

The theory of Reciprocal Applicability gives rise to our loathing of slavery. The person who would enslave another certainly deserves to be enslaved by the very person who is victimized. Since most people who are tied up in the slave trade or in “Human Trafficking” are evil incarnate, no amount of punishment is sufficient, in this corporeal world to make amends, so we must seek to make examples of those who are caught, by making them World recognized slaves, their owners, their victims. The Victim(s) turned owner(s) would be given wide latitude. Not so much for punishment but as a deterrent to other would be slave traders.

The theory of Reciprocal Applicability can be applied to a wide range of human cultural, societal and personal interactions. I can easily think of hundreds of other application than the ones I have mentioned here. These were the examples I thought would most hammer home the idea and it’s implications. The concept may be of use to some future researcher, or it may find the bottom of the dust bin… but that is it. Take it as you want.

Sincerely,

John Pepin