We love rights. I love rights. Rights are wonderful. They let me do the stuff I like to do, like say what I want, look how I want, love who I want, and be who I want to be. They're pretty great. I mean, really. They are. Aren't they? Do you know what the best thing about them is? It's that no one can infringe on your rights with impunity. Pretty cool, yeah?
Yeah, I thought so. But what are rights? People misuse the word quite a bit. It has turned into a word that doesn't mean anything, but still carries the weight of something that does. We packed this word to the brim so full of bullshit that we think that it still has substance the way we use it.
Nowadays, whenever we seem to want something we don't have, we automatically shout "I HAVE THE RIGHT TO --" No. No, you don't have the right to that.
Let's look at a few.
"I have the right to be treated with respect."
Oh? Do you? Well, uh...let's take a gander at the handy-dandy Constitution (That is assuming that you live in the United States). Hmmm...perfect union...tranquility...voting...nope. Can't find right. I guess the publishers just didn't think that it'd be as interesting of a read with it in there. Or it's because you actually don't have the right to that, and were never meant to have that right. Why? Because the constitution does grant people the right to free speech, and that includes calling you a whole gang of disrespectful things. I'll fill you in on a tiny secret. Other people's rights are more important than your feelings, you prick.
"I have the --" No you don't. I'll just stop you right there because you don't. Otherwise you wouldn't be shouting it out loud.
Then there's rights you don't have that you probably should. The right to decide what you do to your own body? Yeah, sounds good to me. But no. Not everyone has this right. Still, though. People shout at the top of their lungs that we "have the right" to do these things. Well, you don't and that's exactly the sort of thinking that will get you nowhere.
This sort of phrasing makes the argument sound completely different.
It all begins with understanding where your rights really do come from. Where is that? do they come out your ass (cheap shot, I know)? No. Do you get them from Santa? Do you find rights on the shelves at the fine retailers near you? No, you don't. You know this perfectly well, that's why you protest your government for your rights. But when it comes down to it, it's important to know your place as a citizen.
Let's say there's a raven, and it sees that Edgar Allen Poe is eating a really tasty bowl of bread crumbs.
Let's see how this would turn out.
Once upon a midnight dreary,
as I sit there weak and weary
eating a bowl of these bitchin' bread crumbs,
suddenly there came a tapping
as of someone gently rapping.
Rapping at my chamber door.
Tis the wind and nothing more.
Then the tapping got louder and the raven knocked on the door with his beak because Edgar was too lazy and moody to notice the first time.
Quoth the raven, "Give me your bread crumbs."
Quoth Edgar "No, they are not your breadcrumbs."
Quoth the raven, "I have a right to eat these breadcrumbs."
Quoth Edgar, "Uh, no. You don't."
Quoth the raven, "Look, it's a human/bird right!"
Quoth Edgar, "Oh? Really?"
Quoth the raven, "Yeah. Really."
Quoth Edgar, "Well, where does it say that you have the right to eat my breadcrumbs?"
Quoth the raven, "Look, it doesn't say it anywhere, but it's just common sense."
Now, I'm going to stop there out of curtesy to you. But the point remains that no matter how you feel about the raven getting some breadcrumbs, it still doesn't have the right, because without a government you do not have rights. That's actually one of the few things a government is theoretically good for. Without laws, there are no rights, because that's what rights are. They are laws that state that do not only state that you have the right to do something, or not to do something if you do not want to, for that matter, but also that no one has the right to deny you of that right, as it is fundamental to your dignity as a human being and an individual.
It becomes this ugly battle when you insult the hand that feeds you, which is not something you want to ever do. Remember, just because you want rights, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have them. Keep that in mind. Live by that. Know what you have and know what you don't. That's the right way.
No comments:
Post a Comment