Human Rights

Human Rights

The one term used in politics the most it seems is the word ‘rights’. Democrats claim people have a ‘right’ to things such as housing, education, medical care and more. Republicans claim people have a ‘right’ to force others to comply with their worldview i.e. religious and otherwise. Both Democrats and Republicans are wrong. It is our vast misconception of what really is a ‘right’ that has caused much confusion in almost all of the debates of the day. One side will debate their view of the ‘facts’ and the other side will debate their views. Both sides are constantly neglecting the real issue which is the violation of human rights. So it is of vital importance to understand where our rights come from and what a ‘right’ really is. Who has ‘rights’ and what do they apply to? These are things that need to be understood if any real debate can go on not only in this country, but in the world. Philosophers like Ayn Rand have explained what a ‘right’ is and where we derive our rights from, which is nature. Thomas Paine explained of rights and the right to life in general as one of the most powerful forces in our world. He said this of liberty “they had no idea that liberty was capable of such inspiration, or that a body of unarmed citizens would dare to face the military force of thirty thousand men.” This statement made in regards to the French Revolution. In the past the term rights, especially referring to right to life i.e. liberty, have engaged in men the ability to do things never before thought of on this earth. In a book by Thomas Sowell entitled Applied Economics. Dr. Sowell mentions a conversation between a teacher and a student. Where the student innocently asks his professor the question of where did slavery come from? The professor replied simply. “You are asking the wrong question the question is where did the idea of freedom come from?”
Possibly it is because the idea of freedom and ‘rights” being so new to mankind that the majority of the populace, including the freest country in the world, still have not fully grasped that ever elusive, and beautiful word ‘right.’ In order to explain rights I shall quote several small sections in one recent philosophers’ definition and defense of individual rights. Ayn Rand.
“Rights” are a moral concept, the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individual’s actions to the principles guiding his relationship with others – the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social context – the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society. Between ethics and politics, individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law (Virtue of Selfishness, 108)
She also explained on page 110
A right is the property of an individual that society as such has no rights, and that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights. A “right” is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): A man’s right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self generated action – which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life (such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Italics mine)
Lastly she said in her most popular book Atlas Shrugged this about the source of man’s rights:
The source of man’s rights is not divine law or congressional law but the law of identity. A is A and man is man. Rights are conditions of existence required by man’s nature for his proper survival. If man is to live on earth, it is right for him to use his mind, it is right to act on his own free judgment it is right to work for his values and to keep the product of his work. If life on earth is his purpose he has a right to live as a rational being: nature forbids him the irrational.
For the first time in history human rights were not given to them by a dictator or by god as a privilege, but were understood to be inalienable and to be part of man’s nature and the best part of them. That government was not there to dictate a man’s life but was instilled by the people and for the people. The Declaration of Independence laid down the principles that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men” This provided the only valid justification of a government and defined it’s only proper purpose: to protect man’s rights by protecting him from physical force.
There has been a breaking and a misunderstanding of what rights truly are and how they operate in a social context. An alleged right which takes away the rights of another man cannot by its very definition be called a right. Right’s do not enforce obligations on another person or on a group of persons. No man can claim a right to impose an unwanted obligation, an unrewarded duty or involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as “the right to enslave”
One of the biggest key indicators of our society losing sight of the concept of rights and their corollaries was the Democratic Party Platform of 1960 which summarizes the switch from the concept of rights from political to the economic realm. The platform declares that a democratic administration “will reaffirm the economic bill of rights which Franklin Roosevelt wrote in our national conscience sixteen years ago”
1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms of mines of the nation.
2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food, clothing and recreation.
3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his product at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.
4. The right of every businessman, large and small to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home and abroad.
5. The right of every family to a decent home
6. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.
7. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accidents and unemployment.
8. The right to a good education.
These alleged rights are still being shouted out at the public, and most people listen to the yelling simply because it sounds good to them. An important aspect of morality people need to realize is that none of these things; jobs, food, clothing, recreation, homes, medical care, education etc grows in nature. These are all man-made values, goods and services produced by men. Who is to provide them? A question to add at the end of all eight points above is a simple one, at whose cost? The question number one then becomes ‘the right to a useful and remunerative job … at whose cost?’ If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.
Our fore fathers intelligently spoke of the Pursuit of Happiness; they did not speak of the right to happiness, only a guarantee to the pursuit of happiness. This means that anyone can take the actions he or she thinks are necessary to achieve their own personal happiness. It does not mean that others must make him or her happy. For example the right to life means that a man has the right to support his life by his own work and to have the opportunity to reach as high a level as he possibly can. It does not mean others must provide him with the necessities of life. The right to property means that a man has the right to take the economic actions necessary to earn property. To use it and to dispose of it; it does not mean that others must provide him with property. The right to free speech means that a man has the right to express his ideas without danger of suppression, interference of punitive action by the government; it does not mean that others must provide that person with a lecture hall, a radio station or a printing press through which to express his ideas. (Virtue of Selfishness, Rand)
In order to become a free society people must have an understanding of their rights and that no one may take away their rights unless they allow someone to take their rights away from them. Over the last eighty years or so there has been a systematic destruction of man’s rights and only very few willing to do or say anything about it. This is because the main flaw in the founding of the United States of America was a lack of a moral code to back up the constitution. Abraham Lincoln once said that “those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” Does this simply mean outright slavery, or does it imply a slavery of any kind? Slavery of forcing a man to hire employees he normally would not, or of forcing some group of people to pay for the hardship of others? One of the major problems with society today is the concept of their rights, that it is their right to medical care and a job simply showcases the ignorance’s of society and its individuals in our modern culture. A group of individuals who claim they have these rights and it is the responsibility of the government to provide them with these rights.
“Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows that as a government grows liberty decreases.” – Thomas Jefferson.
In this end I leave a simple way to understand rights. Imagine this scenario, a man lives on a deserted island, in order to finally understand man’s rights he must ask himself these questions.
1. Do I have a right to food?
2. Do I have a right to housing?
3. Do I have a right to water?
4. Do I have a right to medical care if I get injured?
5. Do I have a right to a job?
The man on the island has none of these alleged ‘rights’ along with many more that today we have begun to imagine as rights. The only right this man has is the right to use his mind in order to build a net to catch fish, to make a fire to cook the fish. He must use his mind to cut down trees in order to build a shelter for himself. He has the right to make bandages when he injures himself, he does not have a magical right to medical care on a deserted island. Rights are a moral transition from his individual rights to the rights in his dealing with other men.