Rights in the Modern Day
As westerners, we have had heard the term human rights, used backward and forwards. With all do respect, it is likely a term many of us take little time to dissect and consider. By definition of the word alone, rights seem to be an undeniable entitlement. However, to whom much is given, much is to be expected. With that in mind, human rights raise a standard of living that compels all of us to recognize if we want our rights respected, we must respect the rights of others as well. It is my opinion that human rights do not need to be defined as God given or Nature given. I only take that stance because the matter of “who’s God” or, “which God,“ creates dissension among those with clashing religious ideologies. I do believe we were all given the power of free will and as a human race, we are better off to exercise that will paying heed to others and to the affects we have on society. Rights are absolutely elemental here in the western world. They ought to be crucial and apposite worldwide.
By defining ‘rights,’ and the ways in which they can be applied to each of us as a society without prejudice of race, sex or age, a standard of living is set. Boundaries are more easily determined and drawn as to what is acceptable behavior or treatment of citizens of a country or as humans co-existing on this planet. Humans are constantly evolving. We are never the same one year and without change or maturation years later. For that reason, I believe it only makes sense that all rights, whether they be social, civil, or political evolve in time as well. For instance, it is undeniable to me that if a white man has his right to speech and freedom, a black man, or a woman ought to have the same rights. Unfortunately, societal thinking doesn’t always move so fast. There often has to be a progressive change to take place and progression often takes time. So, to say we have God given rights, I believe is a very true statement, but I would be wary to define rights as God given because it is left to us to recognize and implement those rights.
I read your post in it you stated that rights are defined as entitlements. I would have to disagree I feel that is the problem with rights are many people and groups use rights as entitlements. Rights have lost its original concept. The big problem as we can see from Lynn Hunt’s book, when your intention is to give everyone a basic rights, the challenge becomes a series of questions, who should be granted rights and how far do those rights extend, etc.? If one person think of rights as entitlements, then the notion of respecting each other rights becomes very complicated, because then everything can be right. I think what can be done is to rethink the definition of rights and the history of rights to see where we went astray. Rights do have legitimacy we can look at the Arab spring and see the need for rights, currently specifically Syria. I think rights defined as entitlements make everything an absolute right therefore the list of rights continues to grow.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your commentary. I must not have been clear, because I do not consider 'rights' to be an entitlement. I do consider 'rights' to be a responsibility and with that responsibility comes opportunity to raise the standard of living for those who the rights apply to. I do agree with you in the way that it becomes a a complex issue as to whom established rights apply to, and to what extent. I tried to illustrate that in the above text. In many instances, rights are formed and evolve to include, exclude, or further protect the target population originally intended.
ReplyDeleteIf you believe that we are all given the power of free will and as a human race, are better off exercising that will with attention to the needs of others, then you are assuming a Giver of free will and a set of moral absolutes which include the duty of paying attention to the needs of others. If we have duties than others have rights, because rights and duties are the opposite sides of the same coin and the boundaries on our rights set limits on the freedom of others. So I think that if there are God given rights, there are God given duties, but I agree that given this is a broken world, figuring out what is the most moral choice in any given situation is going to have to involve a lot of human discretion.
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