As the Declaration of Independence states a sovereign individual proclaims:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

A sovereign individual knows that there are certain rights inherent and belonging to all people. The only way to remove those rights is through authoritarian or tyrannical means. A sovereign individual also recognizes the coercive nature of the state leads to the dissolution of rights.

A sovereign individual realizes that the state can never create rights, they can only restrict them. If an individual looks to the state to grant rights that individual is a subject not a sovereign.

A sovereign individual also realizes that the state will always seek to increase its power and influence. That expansion can only occur at the expense of individual sovereignty. To ensure individual sovereignty an individual must be engaged in the political process as detestable as it might be. A sovereign individual must first govern himself and then seek to influence his community to assert their rights to liberty.

If you are unwilling to assert control over your life and live like a sovereign, someone else will be ready to do so. They may do so with a light hand that includes the inconvenience of excessive regulation or minor invasions of privacy. Or they may be more forceful and deem you a nonessential worker and lock you out of your workplace stripping you of your ability to pursue happiness as you deem best. Or finally they may conscript you into their armies to die in wars of conquest or enmity, ultimately depriving you of life.

A sovereign individual recognizes the state as a necessary evil that must be limited in size and scope if any individual sovereignty is to exist. As more people view themselves as individual sovereigns entrepreneurship will increase, innovation will increase, prosperity will increase, happiness will increase, and the size and power of government will shrink.