SPECIAL NOTE:
The reader will only be able to understand the purpose and meaning of this annotation and its relationship to the Natural Social Contract (NSC), if s/he has first read the Introduction section of the NSC and its explanatory and elucidating annotation.
The concepts of Modified Action, Event, Effect and State as defined within the NSC relate only to a Social context, in the sense that they arise from the Effect upon one Freeman of an Initiation of a Connection by another Freeman or by any Existent Owned, Possessed or Controlled by another Freeman. Any Effect of any other Existent on the Actions, Events, Effects or States relating to a Freeman is not included within the definitions of those terms. Whether the Connection Initiated is a Constraint or is merely an Alteration of the non-Initiating Freeman's Choice Estimations, the fact of the Initiated Connection may or may not Modify hir Actions/Events/Effects/States as has clearly been stated in the definitions of Modified and Unmodified Actions, Events, Effects and States. The purpose of these definitions is to clearly separate and distinguish the Effects of a Connection on the Actions of the non-Initiator of the Connection from any Harm or Benefit to hir (decrease or increase, respectively, of hir Total Future Happiness Expectation) that might concurrently occur. For several detailed examples illustrating these distinctions see: Examples of Social Interaction
It should be noted that some Modified Actions (particularly those that are the result of a Constraint) are what are normally referred to as involuntary on the part of the Freeman whose Actions are Modified. However, this word (involuntary) is not used in the NSC because of its ambiguous nature and lack of consistency with the other defined terms and their usages. This is similar to the reason why the word coercion is not used. The idea of voluntary arises again with respect to the reaction of a Freeman to a Connection Initiated by another Freeman. If the non-Initiating Freeman gives Permission for the Modifying Action, then s/he has effectively taken a Chosen Action implying that the Modifying Event/Effect is not a Harm to hir and s/he has accepted an Involvement with the Freeman Initiating the Connection. The resulting Interaction then becomes an Exchange, which is always voluntary on all sides - ie. is Permitted by all parties to the Exchange. In fact, in the NSC the term Permitted replaces most usages of the vernacular word voluntary. For more details see the Annotation for Responsible Harm, in particular Sections 6 and 7.
