Nature of Rights

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 5:09 AM 5/14/96, Allen Ethridge wrote:

>And on another thread, if rights are simply restrictions on the
>government and not attributes (inate, even) of the individual, then they
>are meaningless.

I presume you're speaking about my point....

This is generally not the place to have long debates about the nature of
government and of civil rights, but it bears mentioning that the
Constitution of the United States _is_ primarily about the delineation of
the role of government, not of private entities, corporations, clubs,
social groups, etc.

Thus, "Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion"
refers to freedom from coercion by government about religion, and to
separation of church and state. It has nothing to do with whether you or I
feel our "rights" within the First Unified Temple of Baal are being
properly respected.

And so on for various other enumerated rights, including the right of free
speech, the right to keep and bear arms, the right of free association, and
so on.

As nearly every argument in this area points out, your right to free speech
does not mean you get to use my newspaper, nor my public address system,
nor my computer service.

The so-called innate or intrinsic rights ("life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness") are basically bromides. Philosophical arguing points for a
view of government as being limited in scope.

Converting a slogan like this to assume this means government will
guarantee jobs for all, or will provide two cars in every driveway, or
whatever, has been fraught with problems.  Not the least of which are that
such goals are inimical to the actual, enumerated rights.

--Tim May

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