What is Aggression?

"Be it or be it not true that Man is shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin,
it is unquestionably true that Government is begotten of aggression and by
aggression." - Herbert Spencer, Man Versus the State

aggression the violation of someone else's rights non-consentual use or damage of someone else's person or property the initiation of violence (or threat of it) against another person

The first definition is most general and most abstract. We ask skeptics of natural law to be patient. In the next chapter we explain why rights language makes sense, even for those who consider natural law to be "nonsense on stilts." Similarly, we appeal to egoists to bear with us - we will show the non-absurdity of rights even for those who consider them "ghosts in the mind." To satisfy almost everyone, two other arguably equivalent definitions are given.

In line with our discussion of property rights, the second definition seems solid and clear. In light of our discussion about self-ownership, "person or property" could be shortened to simply "property." As we saw in the previous chapter, there are various systems of property. It follows that there are various criteria for what actions constitute aggression. For example, squatting an abandoned house is aggression with respect to sticky property systems, but not aggression in possession property systems. Charging rent or interest is aggression in possession systems, but not in sticky systems.

This conflict between different evaluations of conduct has been generally overlooked by anarchist schools in the past. There has been some "panarchist" thought that is pertinent to this issue, but it seems to address different governing systems rather than different property systems. We will attempt to enlarge panarchy's competing governments to competing property systems in the later chapter Panarchy Unbound.