BigBallinStalin wrote:patches70 wrote:BigBallinStalin wrote:patches70 wrote:BigBallinStalin wrote:
If we can point out a human right and have the capability to enforce it, then that's unalienable enough.
That's the true crux of rights, the ability to enforce those rights. Without that there are no rights.
Kind of. We can still think of these rights, so they do exist in that sense.
Kind of like how unicorns exist because one can imagine them? Hahahaha.
Kind of like being a slave and thinking that you should be able to own yourself. Hahahaha?
Yeah, and the second the slave has the power to do such a thing then he'll have the ability to exercise that right to be free. Or if someone else will use said power to grant said freedom.
The slave may wish to own himself, but if he lacks the will and the power to see such a thing, then it will not happen unless someone else acts on his behalf (which is always possible as well).
Besides, it doesn't matter, the slave would free himself from one set of shackles to merely put on another set of shackles (which are at least slightly more comfortable I'd hope). Birds in gilded cages are still in cages.
The only thing one is free in is his own mind, even in chains. That's the only thing any of us really owns, our thoughts. After that, not so much. But there are plenty who willingly sacrifice that freedom of their own mind as you well know.
But in the concept of the OP, the rights that are being spoken of cannot exist unless someone is able to enforce those rights and protect those rights. That's why we institute governments, at least so Jefferson said in his famous Declaration. To protect those inalienable rights.
Inalienable means something that cannot be taken away or given away. If that was the case then the King of England, even though he was a King, could not have taken them away to the point we had to fight to get them.
Rights do not come from a piece of paper, a God, a thought, a government or anything else. Rights are always originally purchased on the battlefield.
Maybe we will come to a point when this is no longer the case. But as it stands now, the battlefield is the where our rights derived from. And battlefields take many shapes and forms, it's not always armies facing off.
See?-


Which brings us right back to trading one set of shackles for another some could argue.....