Sunday, November 24, 2019

You can't violate the imaginary



"You and I don't have any rights."

This statement is often followed by a list of ways political government violates our rights, "proving" we have no rights. But if we have no rights, how can government violate them?

The "We have no rights" claim is a circular argument just like the "Rights don't exist" claim. They both just lead back around to absurdities.

Every human on the planet has equal and identical rights. And once humans leave Earth their rights will go with them wherever they end up.

Will those rights be violated by someone? Guaranteed! So?

If I tie you up so you can't use your arms and then claim that since you can't use your arms you have no arms, is anyone going to buy that argument? Doubtful. That some make it nearly impossible to exercise your rights doesn't mean those rights don't exist-- they are just being violated.

Now, I could chop off your arms and claim you have no arms-- and I think you would agree I have a point, but arms are material while rights are immaterial. The only way to "remove" your rights is to kill you. And if you have no rights, where's the problem with that?
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Writing to promote liberty is my job.
I hope I add something you find valuable enough to support. If so...
YOU get to decide if I get paid.

2 comments:

  1. “You cannot enslave a free man: The most you can do is kill him.”
    - Robert A. Heinlein
    corallary: "You can’t free a slave."


    “Free election of masters- does not abolish the masters, or the slaves.”
    – Herbert Marcuse

    “To say that majorities, as such, have a right to rule minorities, is equivalent to saying that minorities have, and ought to have, no rights, except such as majorities please to allow them.”
    - Lysander Spooner

    “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”
    - Rosa Luxemburg

    “Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be”
    - James Baldwin

    “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
    - Thomas Paine

    “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
    - Patrick Henry

    “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
    - John Philpot Curran

    “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
    - Samuel Adams

    "Harden your hearts. You will need to kill Commies in a polygonal Yugoslavian-style conflict. Deal with it now."
    - wrsa

    "If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
    - Winston Churchill


    “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It only wastes your time and it annoys the pig.”
    — Robert Heinlein – Lazarus Long, “Time Enough for Love”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."
      -- Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity"

      Delete