This Memorial Day let us remember:

You cannot truly love that to which you are obligated by force and threat.

You cannot sacrifice to that which takes from you by force and threat.

You cannot fight for freedom if you or your fellow soldiers have no choice but to fight.

You cannot defend the “people”, or the “common good”, or the “nation”, or die for your country, because collectives do not exist. Only the individual–the moral agent of the Self–can be defended.  To claim any other beneficiary is fallacy.

A flag is a symbol, and therefore subjective. It has no objective meaning, purpose, nor life of its own. It’s relevancy is in the mind of the individual. To one, a symbol of good, to another, of evil. This is a simple truth; and violence against men doesn’t change it, it affirms it.

It is better to let a flag touch the ground than to subordinate one human soul to it. It is better to burn it than to punish the one caught doing so. For unless you let him be you concede that it should burn.

Do not subordinate what is (man), to what is not (symbolism, national pride, collective identity).

The thing which most makes a soldier great is not their fight, their courage, or their sacrifice, but their name.

–Voluntary Valor