Rights Are Neither Given Nor Taken Away...Right?

[CSolarstorm]

This thread is about human rights.

Are they inalienable?
Are rights something inherent to all humans?
Or are our rights God-given?
Does the government give us our rights; can they take them away?
Does might make right? (Social Darwinism?)
Do we need to constantly guard our rights, since freedom is not free?
Are rights an "all or nothing" thing where if we give up one right we grant precedence for all our rights to be taken away?
When do we give up certain rights?
Is it ever right to try to take rights away, as a necessary evil? At what point do we do that?
When do we have too many rights?
Where do you draw the line between a right and a handout? (Do people have the right to information? Health care? Do they have the right to welfare? Food and shelter?)

There are multiple opinions about rights and how many we should have. The Wikipedia entry on Rights is enlightening.

You don't have to address all the questions at once. They're just for ideas.

(This thread was started in response to the One-child Policy thread and in some ways a late response to the population control threads.)

 

[GhostAnime]

I don't even know how to approach this thread. Lol.

 

[M4zz]

Then don't bother spamming it.

Rights, in my opinion, are a silent way of making everyone feel equal. They are just words on paper, and nothing more. Some governments even extort human rights, reference to the one child thread, and simply shrug them off. Sure, they have great importance in society, but no one really notices them.

 

[GhostAnime]

I find it funny that you say that while thinking you have the right to dictate what a parent shows their child.

 

[M4zz]

That's a little off topic, and I don't. Read the new post. That is a matter of responsibility.

 

[GhostAnime]

A matter of responsibility, or a matter of you being controlling? What if I personally think children shouldn't learn homosexuality being normal?

 

[blargin7]

Wow, it kinda hurts my eyes to see right written so many times.

Anyways, IMO, rights are a figment of human creation. As such, it is up to humans to fight to obtain their rights, and up to humans to give others who do not fight for their rights the rights they are allowed. That is not to say that people in North Korea or China do not deserve rights, but that untill they fight for their rights, they will not recieve the rights they deserve. They may be scared and out-matched, but it is what they have to do.

 

[scizor42]

Then don't bother spamming it.

Rights, in my opinion, are a silent way of making everyone feel equal. They are just words on paper, and nothing more. Some governments even extort human rights, reference to the one child thread, and simply shrug them off. Sure, they have great importance in society, but no one really notices them.

Why do people have the right to have as many children as they want?

 

[GaZsTiC]

Wow, it kinda hurts my eyes to see right written so many times.

Anyways, IMO, rights are a figment of human creation. As such, it is up to humans to fight to obtain their rights, and up to humans to give others who do not fight for their rights the rights they are allowed. That is not to say that people in North Korea or China do not deserve rights, but that untill they fight for their rights, they will not recieve the rights they deserve. They may be scared and out-matched, but it is what they have to do.

Wow. Talk about ignorant. People in China and Korea DO fight for their rights - only to be sent straight to prison for life. It's only natural for them to be scared in such a situation.

 

[blargin7]

Wow. Talk about ignorant. People in China and Korea DO fight for their rights - only to be sent straight to prison for life. It's only natural for them to be scared in such a situation.

And while in prison they get tortured severely, giving reason for more fear. Heck, normal people would lose their lunch just watching some of the **** that they do. It doesn't change the fact that they all have to fight to retain their rights, otherwise it is their governments and its armies that will decide what rights they have.

 

[GaZsTiC]

And while in prison they get tortured severely, giving reason for more fear. Heck, normal people would lose their lunch just watching some of the **** that they do. It doesn't change the fact that they all have to fight to retain their rights, otherwise it is their governments and its armies that will decide what rights they have.

Or we can hope that leader figures such as Obama will be able to pressure said governments into change.

 

[houndourm]

Rights are lies. We have none until we are deemed old enough to. And then we have to follow sets of guidelines to keep those rights. And from there if you are disliked you have even less. They are wavering and can be taken away at the drop of a hat. Therfor they are almost non existant.

 

[M4zz]

Why do people have the right to have as many children as they want?

It's not a right, it's a choice. And where the hell do you get that from anyways? My reference was to the Chinese government.

 

[CSolarstorm]

Rights are lies. We have none until we are deemed old enough to.

Now hold on with that thought. Don't you agree that with rights come responsibilities, and in order to handle responsibility you have to have a certain amount of knowledge and experience?

And then we have to follow sets of guidelines to keep those rights. And from there if you are disliked you have even less. They are wavering and can be taken away at the drop of a hat. Therfor they are almost non existant.

So they're like a small fire when you're camping - it's in risk of going out constantly, so you have to do a lot of things to keep it alive, and although that's dissapointing, you still need it to provide light and warmth.

And like rights, you need a certain amount of knowledge to start a fire and take care of it safely.

 

[Profesco]

Rights are lies. We have none until we are deemed old enough to. And then we have to follow sets of guidelines to keep those rights. And from there if you are disliked you have even less. They are wavering and can be taken away at the drop of a hat. Therfor they are almost non existant.

No no no. Not all rights. The right to life is inalienable and unconditional. There is no age benchmark before which an infant person is up for the killing.

There are different depths of rights, to the point where some might overlap with the definition of "privileges," which could certainly be age-determined, earned, or taken away, but that is not all rights.

 

[ebilly99]

Human rights are not given they are earned by the sweat and blood of the patriots willing to fight for them. The second we stop fighting for then is when they will be taken from us little by little.

 

[PokeJustice]

Human rights are not given they are earned by the sweat and blood of the patriots willing to fight for them. The second we stop fighting for then is when they will be taken from us little by little.

No. Think moar.

Rights are natural. No one had to die for you to deserve basic human dignities.

 

[ebilly99]

No. Think moar.

Rights are natural. No one had to die for you to deserve basic human dignities.

I disagree. Unless one is willing to die for ones rights all one has is a promise that may be broke at any time. This is why there are countrys that have no human rights.

 

[CSolarstorm]

Nobody had to die for us to deserve basic human dignities, but in order to actually acquire what we deserve, people did die.

 

[PokeJustice]

I disagree. Unless one is willing to die for ones rights all one has is a promise that may be broke at any time. This is why there are countrys that have no human rights.

Ah, I understand you now. But unwillingness to die for your rights does not grant a government the right to disrespect them.