<center>![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmYLeKSmKzarhQZo1y9C7dsZNsAe5LGWYsACnSBS7muNjR)
</center>
- - -
Over the past few days, we've had to make a few hard decisions and as usual they weigh on my mind.  To understand how PAL works and why we make decisions the way we do, it's important to realize that we're constantly juggling and trying to balance three core tenants of our ideologies and that we do our best to be mindful that one extreme can impair the others.  No one person makes the rules and while some would likely find many of our debates trivial, we consider consensus important and fundamental to our community leadership.

Many of you may be new to PAL as a community since the launch of PALnet and I understand that many may care less about the community and more about finding a viable alternative the current state of steemit.  Our goals have always been to be as inclusive as we can be, but any time any form of governance comes into play, there will be rules and ultimately those rules exist because some constantly feel the need to push the boundaries and impose their will on others' autonomy.  An excess of liberty can often lead to a breach of peace or a lack of abundance for example.  What is right for one may not be right for the other.

We have a pretty diverse set of people that make up the leadership for PAL.  Many of us have drastically different political views and personal beliefs, but through collaborative efforts, we've been able to keep this group together for about two years and while sometimes people end up having to be removed from the community, it's never a decision that we take lightly.  All of that being said, you may wonder how someone like me, a vocal proponent of anarchy and the concept of "no slaves and no masters" make peace with these decisions.

As I said at the start, they do weigh on my mind and I find myself playing devil's advocate more often than I'd care to admit.  I feel like everyone has the freedom to express themselves and I do my best to respect everyone else's autonomy.  That being said, respect is a two way street, just like communication.  The same way that you cannot communicate with someone that has no interest in considering your perspective, you can't force someone else to respect your autonomy.  That doesn't mean that any of us should have any less respect for our own autonomy and should clearly enforce our own personal boundaries.

If you're familiar with the non-aggression principle, then you'll probably understand why our motto is "do no harm, but take no shit."  While we'd rather never have to make or enforce rules, it would be a great disservice to ourselves and the majority of the community to allow people to constantly do harm to us or within our collective.  While we have no control over other people, we do have control over ourselves and what we will and won't tolerate.  When someone makes it clear that they mean to do you harm or disregard your autonomy, allowing them to disregard your consent out of respect for their liberty is no longer an option, because that isn't fair to yourself.

If we're going to respect anyone, we also have to respect ourselves.  Consent is an extremely important thing in a voluntary collective.  By consenting to be a part of a collective, it's understood and implied that we're working together towards a common goal.  Allowing someone the liberty to disrupt that common objective and actively work against it is unfair to everyone else in the collective and is the reason that peace and liberty have to be balanced.  We're never going to be able to please everyone and it would be foolish to attempt to do so.  

While some will always see a flag or even an extreme case where a person is removed from participating in the collective as censorship or an attack on liberty, I think that's a bit extreme, but we all have the right to decide for ourselves.  Anyone that is looking for a completely lawless land to pillage and do harm has the entire blockchain to do as the please, but if they consent to being a part of this collective, then they should expect us to maintain our boundaries.  It's all about balance and what some view as liberty, others see as a breach of peace or attack on their abundance and prosperity.  Hopefully this will help understand why and how these decisions are made and that they are never personal.  Much love.
- - -
>[Image by woodleywonderworks.](https://live.staticflickr.com/3735/9533293701_904c8edc17_b.jpg)