<img src="http://gracefilledworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/compass-and-map.jpg">

Houses and buildings are not the same thing as geographical areas. Houses and building are enclosures. They require work and investment to build and maintain. Without work and maintenance, enclosures fall into disrepair and, over time, are reclaimed by the nature of the geographical area through overgrowth, weather damage, etc.

<img src="http://www.sickchirpse.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Niki-Feijen-UrBex-Abandoned-Buildings-Bedroom-2-670x456.jpg">

Geographical areas, on the other hand, just exist naturally. Geographical areas can be enclosed with houses and buildings (and even fences or roads), but the area itself doesn't need work or maintenance to continue to exist. Geographical areas continue to exist regardless of whether they are enclosed or not.

Likewise, lines on maps aren't enclosures. Maps aren't the terrain or the territory. <strong>You can not enclose a geographical area by drawing a map anymore than you can clothe yourself by drawing pants. </strong>Even if you could, enclosing someone else's enclosure doesn't mean that you own their enclosure; it means that you took someone hostage. Likewise, enclosing someone in a body bag NYPD style doesn't mean you own their body; it means you took a hostage.

<img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KLwIaLHJUOU/maxresdefault.jpg">

When the individual owner(s) of an enclosure sets rules for their enclosure or asks someone to leave, their authority to do so is derived from the fact that it is their work and/or voluntary exchange which maintains the enclosure. They own their bodies, so they own the product of their labor, or that which they voluntarily agree to trade the product of their labor for. And since it's perfectly okay for an individual to deny others access to their body, it's also perfectly okay for an individual to deny access to their enclosure or only grant access to others under certain terms and conditions.

By contrast, government isn't an enclosure or geographical area. The state isn't an enclosure or geographical area. "Government" and "state" are euphemisms for men and women who force everyone in a certain geographical area to pay them under threat of kidnapping, imprisonment, assault, and murder.  This is why the <em>My House, My Rules!</em> argument for statism falls flat. These men and women operate on the presumptions that lines on maps are the same as physical enclosures and that it's justified to take people hostage when they resist theft.

"<em>What theft?</em>", you ask?

<img src="http://cdn2.gurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/kanye1.gif">

Taxation, dummy! If taxation were the same as voluntary exchange, withholding consent wouldn't result in an initiation of force. Telling someone to "leave the state if you don't like it" doesn't change this because, as I've pointed out, "governments" and "states" aren't enclosures or geographical areas, thus there's nothing to leave. Even if these men and women DO enclose an entire geographical area (like when they steal money and build roads around everything), they'd just be enclosing other people's enclosures, which is hostage taking.

Besides, if people were "free to leave" as statists claim, why do the men and women calling themselves government force you to forfeit money for a passport or expatriation in order to do so? If people were really "free to leave", why is force initiated against those who do so without permission? Why do people need permission to leave in the first place if they're free to leave?

<img src="http://dorotbensimon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photos-passports-nz-au.jpg">

But then again, statists always have a misconstrued sense of the term "free". They think welfare is free as long as the bill for it gets passed to the unborn, so why wouldn't they think living under constant threat of theft, kidnapping, assault, imprisonment and murder means they're free?

Their position is built on the logical fallacy <em>argumentum ad baculum</em>, or appeal to the cudgel or stick.

Because remember: being able to get away with violence means never having to prove you're right.

<em>I'm <a href="http://www.facebook.com/therealjaredhowe">Jared Howe</a>! I'm a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/j3443one">Voluntaryist hip hop artist</a> and professional technical editor/writer with a passion for Austrian economics and universal ethics. You can catch my podcast every Friday on the <a href="http://www.theseedsofliberty.com/">Seeds of Liberty Podcast Network</a>.</em>

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