By Austin Anderholt| United States

In my health class, my school recently taught us about consent, and the 5 factors that MUST go into consent. Interestingly enough, the government violates every one of them. The school taught an acronym called F.R.I.E.S. :

F – Freely given. “Doing something sexual with someone is a decision that should be made without pressure, force, manipulation, or while drunk or high.”

Clearly, the government violates this one. Everyone can agree that taxes and other government laws are only followed because of force. I personally do not consent to taxation. When I pay taxes, it will only be because government otherwise threatens to lock me in a cage.

R – Reversible. “Anyone can change their mind about what they want to do, at any time. Even if you’ve done it before or are in the middle of engaging in intercourse.”

Government does us one better. Not only can we not reverse our choice to submit to the rule and tax of the state, but we are not given the option in the first place. Government simply tells us that a piece of paper that we never signed lets them do whatever they want to us on our property.

I – Informed. “Be honest. For example, if someone says they’ll do X and then they don’t, that’s not consent.”

If a politician says, “We won’t raise your taxes!” and then they do, that’s not consent.

Or, if they promise to end civilian casualties of war, yet don’t do so, that’s not consent.

If they claim, “The founders created America in the name of freedom!”, and then lock someone in a cage for smoking more than the regulation amount of a plant, that’s not consent.

E – Enthusiastic. “If someone isn’t excited, or really into it, that’s not consent.”

I don’t know about my audience, but I personally am not enthusiastic about armed robbers stealing 30% of my income.

S – Specific. “Saying yes to one thing doesn’t mean they’ve said yes to others.”

I haven’t even said yes to one thing. All government tells us is that we all signed a social contract at birth that lets them do whatever they want. It doesn’t specify anything at all. There’s no document that I’ve signed, there are no agreements I’ve ever made to the government.

Government’s standards for taxation and lawmaking are incompatible with proper and consensual behavior.

I seriously cannot believe that our society can have such great standards for consent in the bedroom, yet turn its back when government violates these standards.