Christina recently had the chance to talk with Jim Babka, Social Strategist for the Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity (FHP). Jim has spent decades thinking deeply about how we relate to one another in society and how principles – not just policies – shape the way we live.
At the center of FHP’s work is a concept they call the Natural Principle of Human Respect. It’s simple, but powerful: whenever someone experiences coercion, theft, or violence, their happiness, harmony, and prosperity will decline – always. It’s a cause-and-effect relationship, like gravity. Drop an object, and it falls. Use coercion against someone, and their well-being decreases.
That principle leads us to some intriguing questions:
- What kind of world could we create if we organized our lives, our communities, and even our policies around human respect?
- Could we apply this principle to our cultural and political response to drugs and addiction and dramatically reduce harm?
Trust as the Default
Jim pointed out that most of us already live by the Natural Principle of Human Respect, even if we’ve never thought about it or heard it explained. For instance, when we go to a restaurant, we don’t demand to meet the chef and interview them to make sure they won’t poison us. We assume that the people preparing our food are practicing human respect – they mean us no harm. That baseline trust makes daily life possible.
Now imagine extending that same trust more broadly – by allowing people to pursue their own happiness, as long as they don’t harm others in the process. FHP believes that respecting others’ choices, even when they differ from our own, can unlock innovations and opportunities we can’t yet see. As Jim put it, coercion often chokes ideas in the cradle. It keeps potential breakthroughs – whether in technology, medicine, or social connection – from ever coming to life.
From Relationship to “The Conflict Machine”
Instead of choosing relationship, Jim said, most people in our culture often default to politics – what he calls the “conflict machine.” When a problem arises, we don’t ask how communities or individuals might address it. We ask government employees to step in, and that typically results in coercion. Someone pays higher taxes, someone faces new restrictions, and someone sees their freedom curtailed. In the process, neighbors start to see one another as enemies.
We experienced this escalation during the pandemic, when even family dinners could splinter over political or policy differences. Instead of building stronger communities, government coercion leaves us more divided and less trusting.
But human respect points us in a different direction: toward voluntary cooperation, real relationships, and solutions built together. Jim gave the example of Habitat for Humanity – where homeowners, volunteers, and neighbors work side by side. That’s not just problem-solving. It’s community-building.
Human Respect and Drug Policy
So how does this connect to drug policy?
Jim grew up in a world where the message was simple: drugs are bad, ban them all. He has never used illegal drugs, and he’s not promoting drug use. He agrees with End It For Good’s position that drugs should be legal, for the same reason we believe that it should. It reduces harm. Pragmatically, we can see that playing out all around us in underground markets, contaminated substances, and destabilized families. When we criminalize drug possession, we turn a health issue into an armed conflict. But Jim believes the core reason all of this happens is because government coercion like this violates the Natural Principle of Human Respect.
Take psychedelics, for example. Today, there’s promising evidence that they could help veterans and others struggling with PTSD. But decades of government prohibition shut down research that might have saved many lives in the last several decades. Instead of respecting people’s freedom to explore potential healing, prohibition brought about coercion through arrests, incarceration, and punishment. That’s not just lost research. It’s lost lives, lost relationships, lost potential.
And prohibition hasn’t just blocked science. It’s contributed to nearly a million overdose deaths in recent decades because the prohibited products people use are not quality-controlled. They’re contaminated. Every one of those deaths represents a person of potential, someone whose gifts and future contributions were cut short. Respect would look like creating policies that give adults more choices and remove barriers to research.
Laws as Coercion
Many of us don’t think of laws as coercion. We may think of them as teaching tools to signal what society believes is right or wrong. But as Jim mentioned, every law is enforced at the end of a gun. The word “enforcement” itself implies force. Whether through fines, jail time, or ultimately armed officers, laws always come down to coercion.
That doesn’t mean laws have no place. But it should make us pause before reaching for legislation as our first solution. Do we really want to use force to address issues of personal choice or health? Or could we rely more on persuasion, relationship, and community?
Choosing Respect
At the end of the day, the Natural Principle of Human Respect invites us to imagine a better way – not just for drug policy, but for how we treat one another in society. What would it look like if we trusted more, coerced less, and made space for people to pursue their own paths, as long as they don’t harm others? When it’s someone close to us, we tend to have compassion. We see the complexity. We recognize their humanity and needs. But when it’s someone we don’t know, it’s so easy to use force. Respect shouldn’t vanish in public policy.
We can look at drug policy and see the cost of coercion everywhere – lost research, lost lives, broken families. Most of us use the Natural Principle of Human Respect in our daily lives as our default. We recognize that force and coercion don’t tend to work well in relationships or on the job. But the Foundation for Harmony & Prosperity invites us to consider if this is more than a personal ethic. Could it also be a framework for rethinking policies that touch millions of lives and lead to a society marked by more harmony and prosperity? Jim Babka believes the answer is yes. The Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity and its founder, Chris Rufer, are working every day to invite more people to consider this principle. They’re convinced it holds the key to more happiness for more people worldwide. Have they convinced you?