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While I'm a rabid defender of rights, I don't agree they are not bestowed upon us, nor that they are unable to be taken away. Ask anyone in prison or a wartorn
by burnte 11y ago
While I'm a rabid defender of rights, I don't agree they are not bestowed upon us, nor that they are unable to be taken away. Ask anyone in prison or a wartorn or repressive country if they still have all of their human rights. They don't. Rights CAN be taken away, and routinely are. The question is do we fight to retake and retain them.
- c22 11y agoI think it's just a terminology thing. Naturally our rights are inalienable, but we tend to rely on our governments to enforce this reality.
- mondoshawan 11y agoThe terminology here is absolutely key, though. A government cannot imbue someone with "rights" -- only privileges.
- Bjartr 11y agoFor those who are interested, there is more information of the philosophy of natural/inalienable rights available on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_and_legal_rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_and_legal_rights
- mondoshawan 11y agoYou misunderstand -- I'm not saying they can't be taken away. What I'm saying is that they cannot be /given/, /granted/, or /bestowed/ because governments don't make or own rights. Every human is innately free whether or not a governmental entity likes it or not. Whether or not those rights are oppressed or not is another story.
- pkroll 11y agoYou're making rights out to be something they aren't. Humans, outside of government, humans "in the wild" have exactly the rights an animal has: they're free. Free to be food for something bigger, or to defend themselves if they can. But that's about it. Rights are a human-made concept, and can only be given from one person to others.
- chris_wot 11y agoSo if rights are bestowed upon someone by another person, who bestowed those rights to the grantee? And who bestowed them to that person, and so on?
- pkroll 11y agoNow? Ideally we give the right to hand out rights, via voting. Originally? Whoever could take control by force, dolled out rights as they saw fit.
- chris_wot 11y agoCan you back that idea up with historical fact? Or is that a guess?
- pkroll 11y agoIt's a guess. Can you back up the idea that rights are anything other than a human-made concept, at all? That they're somehow intrinsic to the universe?
- chris_wot 11y agoI don't have to as I didn't assert that.
- pkroll 11y agoFair enough, so what's your answer to your question "So if rights are bestowed upon someone by another person, who bestowed those rights to the grantee? And who bestowed them to that person, and so on?" i.e., what's your core assertion about this subject?
- chris_wot 11y agoI'm a Christian, so my belief is that God created us with a set of rights: the right to survive (food, clothing and shelter), the right to exist peacefully in creation and the right to live securely. As humans, we routinely violate those rights. You did ask :-)