If you believe government has a right to do anything, you are a government-supremacist.
If you believe government has authority to do anything, you are a government-supremacist.
Individuals-- and only individuals-- have rights. A group of individuals has no rights that each individual doesn't already have. More rights can't be created by banding together with others.
Only someone who imagines that government is superior to the individual could believe that a government has the right to do anything to any individual. Such a description fits a government-supremacist-- they believe government is superior to the individual. To them, government is supreme.
Authority, when used to talk about government, is not real. The belief that political authority is real qualifies as a superstitious belief. The Most Dangerous Superstition, according to Larken Rose-- and I agree.
Only someone who considers government superior to the individual could imagine that such a group has authority to violate the natural human rights of any individual. Such a person would necessarily imagine government is superior to the individual. To them, government is supreme.
Do you believe government has rights or authority? If so, why? How would you explain and justify these beliefs?
If authority = power, and the people have granted the power, then, yes, government has authority to exercise the power. Authority on its own without the grant from the people? No. In fact Hell, no. Alas, this seems to be a minority opinion.
ReplyDeleteI don't think authority = power.
DeleteA mugger who has the drop on you has power. If some number of people are OK with this, does it mean he has authority? You can't legitimately grant someone power/authority over anyone but yourself-- not by a majority v*te or anything else.
According to you, what exactly does it mean when "the people have granted the power" to the government? Suppose almost everyone agrees, "The government has the power, and the right, to run our lives," but a minority disagree and insist, "I will run my own life."
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