![Eagle 3](../../Images/Eagle_3.gif) ![Frontiersman, May 2010](Images/Title.gif)
![5x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/5x5_Page_Background.gif) Rights Galore Sam Aurelius Milam III
There
are many things to which people refer as rights. The failure of people
to recognize that most of those things are not rights has caused a lot
of confusion. It would help if there were different names for each
of the different kinds of things that are called rights, but that are not
rights. Maybe someday some genius will provide such names.
For now, I'll do what everybody else does and refer to them as rights,
but with qualifiers. The only things that I'll call rights, without
a qualifier, are the things that are actually rights. When I use
the word rights without a qualifier, that's what I mean.
The
failure of people to recognize that many of the things that are called
rights are not actually rights is caused, at least in part, by the lack
of a good definition. More than 20 years ago, I developed just
such a definition. My experience since then suggests that, in
spite of my definition, people will continue to cling to their own notions
of the things that they regard as rights and completely ignore my definition.
So, before I present my definition again, I'll address some of the notions
that masquerade as rights in the minds of people who don't know any better.
None of those notions actually satisfies my definition. That alone
disqualifies them as rights.
Human
Rights — The conviction that every person ought to be able to do or
to have certain things just because he's human is a noble idea in theory.
At some time in the past, it might even have been a good idea in practice.
Nowadays, it suffers from the consequences of false assumptions.
Foremost among such assumptions is the belief that if somebody needs a
particular thing, then he automatically deserves it. Then, since
he deserves the thing, it must necessarily be a human right. Finally,
since the thing is a human right, some activist necessarily has the authority
to make sure that the person who deserves it actually gets it. Using
such false assumptions, activists of every stripe have transformed what
might have been a good idea into a tool of repression.
The
problem is that, without a good definition, the idea of human rights is
endlessly mutable. That makes it a useful tool for activists.
Each group of activists insists on some specific remedy for its own version
of human rights violations. Not surprisingly, such remedies usually
require some kind of intervention. The intervention, of course, escalates
to the threat or the use of deadly force. Thus, perceived human rights
violations provide excuses for the repression and control of any group
of people who are deemed to be guilty of human rights violations.
Depending on the issue, the deadly force will be exerted by groups of armed
thugs ranging from local sheriff's departments all the way up to the United
Nations. Compliance or punishment are the only options that the activists
will allow. Thus, beginning with a professed interest in human rights,
the activists have created a system of surveillance, intrusion, and enforcement
that potentially reaches into every nook and cranny of every town and hamlet
in the entire world. It's a good example of evil deeds done in the
name of an otherwise worthy cause.
Some
so-called human rights might actually be rights. Even when that isn't
true, some good might still have been done in the name of human rights.
In spite of any such good results that might have occurred, I believe that
the idea is a net loss. In most cases, it serves only to provide
the various activists with a tool of repression whereby they can impose
their beliefs on other people. Whatever the case, the idea of human
rights doesn't have much to do with actual rights.
Natural
Rights — As with the idea of human rights, the idea of natural rights
isn't well defined. It's the notion that people ought to be able
to do certain things because, presumably, they do those things naturally.
If the idea of natural rights is going to be based on the idea of natural
behavior, then the idea must deal with behavior such as occurs or might
occur
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May 2010 | Frontiersman, c/o
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