Diane – I was with you right up to the last three paragraphs, where the message got lost. “We” are not where the onus for responsibility and respect for rights lies. Instead it rests with those in power – political, economic, cultural – in part in whom we trust, e.g., elected officials, to assure rights for all, respect for all. When they abrogate their responsibility – for example, in tax cuts for the rich, making life tougher for those not well off; obscene levels of spending on the military that contributes to the bankruptcy of the nation; blind, bought off ideological support for a genocidal entity, to name just a few – when they do all this and more, despite our protestations, despite our feeble attempts to turn them out of office, it is not “we” who are to blame.
To be very pointed, who’s responsible for the egregious violations of human rights and dignity at the present time that stand among the worst of them all since the adoption of the UDHR in 1948? The United States and Israel. I’m not going accept any responsibility for that other than to do what I can, in addition to living my own life, to protest them, to hold them accountable. And as is the nature of the bestiality practiced by those two, they will prevail. Though that’s not an excuse to retreat from the battle against them.
A closing note – this is all the legacy of Zionism, exposed by Yaweh Sinwar on Oct. 7, 2023, that all that buttresses human dignity, among them rights, responsibilities, respect, mean nothing when an all consuming, aggrandizing, life-antithetical, supremacist dogma is allowed and abetted to run wild over humanity.
I don't disagree that governments, courts and institutions bear the greatest responsibility to uphold human rights. Nor am I saying that "we"--individual citizens--are responsible for their violations. If "we" value and believe in human rights, then we have a responsibility to protest and hold violators and offenders to account in any way we can.
Indeed we do, feet to the fire and all that. I've had some direct run-ins with those ostensibly involved in defending our rights and those of others, and their degree of indifference, arrogance, condescension, obtuseness, ignorance - shall I go on? - left me close to knocking their blocks off. I momentarily weighed whether an assault charge might be worth it.
This is another legacy of the times, "your" government more often than not works against you. That's gotta be straightened out.
If I am alone in a forest, alone on a desert island, or anywhere at all, what innate rights do I “have” other than whatever rights any other form of life has?
We exist and survive by our means, individually or collectively. I have no rights other than what the laws of the universe permit and what my fellow man is willing to afford me.
It seems we are looking into a deep philosophical well, searching for a droplet of truth. But rights do not drop out of nature, nor do they abide by the laws of physics. They have no mass. They exist in the space between our minds and our wills, in that arena where we negotiate how we treat one another. When alone, we are neither restricted nor entitled; we simply are. Once others appear on the island, interaction begins and the world becomes complicated. We want recognition. After all, it was our island, or was it? That does not make rights false or illusory, only contingent upon other massless things, such as social and moral frameworks.
It seems to me that this thing we call rights is not something I merely think about. I feel it and know it innately. Be it an illusion or a delusion, rights are another form of that other construct we endlessly grapple with: love. Like love, they have no mass and no measurable presence, yet they exert real force upon us. If I have love for my fellow men, I will respect them, treat them with dignity, and see them as my equals, neither lesser nor greater, but as part of the whole. I am but one human in a mass of humanity. If I love, I will be loved.
Thanks for that! Though I appreciate every tip and subscription that come my way, reader likes, comments and interaction are by far the best remuneration.
All three of those Rs are very important, Diane. I only hope that we can somehow get them to trickle up to our political leaders and the powerful elite that make so many crappy decisions that affect us all.
I don't think it goes against human nature, but the nature of the elite class. There's so much day to day kindness, generosity and helpfulness, at least in my experience.
In any discussion of rights of man, I like Thomas Paine, and I like the Ninth Amendment in our founding document. In short, an exhaustive listing of the rights of man is impossible because they are too numerous.
Diane – I was with you right up to the last three paragraphs, where the message got lost. “We” are not where the onus for responsibility and respect for rights lies. Instead it rests with those in power – political, economic, cultural – in part in whom we trust, e.g., elected officials, to assure rights for all, respect for all. When they abrogate their responsibility – for example, in tax cuts for the rich, making life tougher for those not well off; obscene levels of spending on the military that contributes to the bankruptcy of the nation; blind, bought off ideological support for a genocidal entity, to name just a few – when they do all this and more, despite our protestations, despite our feeble attempts to turn them out of office, it is not “we” who are to blame.
To be very pointed, who’s responsible for the egregious violations of human rights and dignity at the present time that stand among the worst of them all since the adoption of the UDHR in 1948? The United States and Israel. I’m not going accept any responsibility for that other than to do what I can, in addition to living my own life, to protest them, to hold them accountable. And as is the nature of the bestiality practiced by those two, they will prevail. Though that’s not an excuse to retreat from the battle against them.
A closing note – this is all the legacy of Zionism, exposed by Yaweh Sinwar on Oct. 7, 2023, that all that buttresses human dignity, among them rights, responsibilities, respect, mean nothing when an all consuming, aggrandizing, life-antithetical, supremacist dogma is allowed and abetted to run wild over humanity.
I don't disagree that governments, courts and institutions bear the greatest responsibility to uphold human rights. Nor am I saying that "we"--individual citizens--are responsible for their violations. If "we" value and believe in human rights, then we have a responsibility to protest and hold violators and offenders to account in any way we can.
Indeed we do, feet to the fire and all that. I've had some direct run-ins with those ostensibly involved in defending our rights and those of others, and their degree of indifference, arrogance, condescension, obtuseness, ignorance - shall I go on? - left me close to knocking their blocks off. I momentarily weighed whether an assault charge might be worth it.
This is another legacy of the times, "your" government more often than not works against you. That's gotta be straightened out.
This notion that we “have” rights troubles me.
If I am alone in a forest, alone on a desert island, or anywhere at all, what innate rights do I “have” other than whatever rights any other form of life has?
We exist and survive by our means, individually or collectively. I have no rights other than what the laws of the universe permit and what my fellow man is willing to afford me.
It seems we are looking into a deep philosophical well, searching for a droplet of truth. But rights do not drop out of nature, nor do they abide by the laws of physics. They have no mass. They exist in the space between our minds and our wills, in that arena where we negotiate how we treat one another. When alone, we are neither restricted nor entitled; we simply are. Once others appear on the island, interaction begins and the world becomes complicated. We want recognition. After all, it was our island, or was it? That does not make rights false or illusory, only contingent upon other massless things, such as social and moral frameworks.
It seems to me that this thing we call rights is not something I merely think about. I feel it and know it innately. Be it an illusion or a delusion, rights are another form of that other construct we endlessly grapple with: love. Like love, they have no mass and no measurable presence, yet they exert real force upon us. If I have love for my fellow men, I will respect them, treat them with dignity, and see them as my equals, neither lesser nor greater, but as part of the whole. I am but one human in a mass of humanity. If I love, I will be loved.
Great comment bursting with truth!
Thank-you for making us think about such things.
And thank-you for not requiring readers to have a paid subscription in order to read your post but more importantly, to "Pay to have a say"
Thanks for that! Though I appreciate every tip and subscription that come my way, reader likes, comments and interaction are by far the best remuneration.
All three of those Rs are very important, Diane. I only hope that we can somehow get them to trickle up to our political leaders and the powerful elite that make so many crappy decisions that affect us all.
Anything apart from money trickling up would defy not only the laws of nature, but human nature.
I don't think it goes against human nature, but the nature of the elite class. There's so much day to day kindness, generosity and helpfulness, at least in my experience.
Unfortunately there’s more to human nature than kindness, generosity and helpfulness. The elite class represents the dark side.
Of course there is, Diane. But there's also a lot of human decency out there as well. It's not a zero sum thing.
In any discussion of rights of man, I like Thomas Paine, and I like the Ninth Amendment in our founding document. In short, an exhaustive listing of the rights of man is impossible because they are too numerous.
Rights and free will go hand in hand.
Now, these are three Rs I can get behind! (And the two of R.R.--Richard Rohr. Big fan of his meditations.)
You are RIGHT! It's good that you do so much thinking...
So do I.
i wish everyone, or at least, more people, did.
I believe we will not fix ourselves. It's too deep and now gone too far.
The USA is due for a big mess. war? maybe. It fixed Japan and Germany.