I was reading Lever Action by L Neil Smith (also find it free here). I found this New Covenant. What a world it would be if everybody agreed to this. You can find a better formatted one at Smith’s website, and you can find some interesting some nice wall hanger versions here.

A New Covenant*

by L. Neil Smith

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED Witnesses to the Lesson of
History — that no Form of political Governance may be relied upon to secure
the individual Rights of Life, Liberty, or Property — now therefore establish
and provide certain fundamental Precepts measuring our Conduct toward one
another, and toward others:

Individual Sovereignty

FIRST, that we shall henceforward recognize each individual to be
the exclusive Proprietor of his or her own Existence and of all products
of that Existence, holding no Obligation binding among Individuals excepting
those to which they voluntarily and explicitly consent;

Freedom from Coercion

SECOND, that under no Circumstances shall we acknowledge any Liberty
to initiate Force against another Person, and shall instead defend the
inalienable Right of Individuals to resist Coercion employing whatever
Means prove necessary in their Judgement;

Association and Secession

THIRD, that we shall hold inviolable those Relationships among
Individuals which are totally voluntary, but conversely, any Relationship
not thus mutually agreeable shall be considered empty and invalid;

Individuality of Rights

FOURTH, that we shall regard Rights to be neither collective nor
additive in Character — two individuals
shall have no more Rights than one, nor shall two million nor two thousand
million — nor shall any Group possess
Rights in Excess of those belonging to its individual members;

Equality of Liberty

FIFTH, that we shall maintain these Principles without Respect to
any person’s Race, Nationality, Gender, sexual Preference, Age, or System
of Beliefs, and hold that any Entity or Association, however constituted,
acting to contravene them by initiation of Force — or
Threat of same — shall have forfeited its Right to exist;

Supersedure

UPON UNANIMOUS CONSENT of the Members or Inhabitants of any
Association or Territory, we further stipulate that this Agreement
shall supercede all existing governmental Documents or Usages then
pertinent, that such Constitutions, Charters, Acts, Laws, Statutes,
Regulations, or Ordinances contradictory or destructive to the Ends
which it expresses shall be null and void, and that this Covenant,
being the Property of its Author and Signatories, shall not be Subject
to Interpretation excepting insofar as it shall please them.

SIGNATORY:				WITNESS:

_________________________________	_______________________________

signature		date		signature		date

_________________________________	_______________________________

name (please print)			name (please print)

SEND TO:

736 Eastdale Drive

Fort Collins, CO 80524

PLEASE ENCLOSE TWO DOLLARS to cover processing and archiving. Add SASE for
confirmation of receipt.

*Excerpted from Chapter XVII of The Gallatin Divergence by
L. Neil Smith, Del Rey Books (a division of Random House), New York, 1985,
as amended by unanimous consent, October, 1986.

e-mail L. Neil Smith: lneil@lneilsmith.org

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