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Do ‘Natural Rights’ Exist?


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2021 Feb 12, 12:26pm   742 views  4 comments

by GuardAmerican   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

Why are there Human Rights that simply exist that cannot be withdrawn?

Because life exists in a materially different manner than the existence of inanimate objects. Human life is different than, say, a stone. But if you were to magnify a stone, look at it closely under microscopes that only man can produce, you would also find life: microscopic life. 

So is all life co-equal? No. Is all life valuable? Yes.

Let's go even smaller. Is the energy or weak magnetic force or electrically charged sub-atomic particles or whatever it is that keeps all matter in a state of tension and order valuable? Yes. 
Are all expressions of energy co-equal? Are the particles of a cardboard box equivalently valuable to the particles that make up you? No.

Are definitions of value subjective? Yes. 

Do you prefer a warm house, suitable food, and the reasonably certain knowledge that you will not be arbitrarily destroyed — reduced into the gravel of your matter like a shattered stone? I'm betting yes. I'm betting you prefer that to a cave, a club, and a piece of raw meat. 

Is your subjective preference for a comfortable life more valuable than my or anyone's preference to destroy your life in order to take all you have? Yes. 

To whom is it valuable? You. Your life is valuable to you. 

Is valuing one life at the expense of destroying another's more valuable than the life they might destroy? Only to the destroyer — and to those in close proximity to those who wield such power. Like the citizens of Pyonyang: Inside Pyonyang, relative comfort. Outside Pyonyang, deprivation and want.

Is the construct of society valuable? Yes. Is it possible to choose one societal construct over another that maximizes the distribution of comfort? Yes. 

Do you value maximizing distribution of comforts, maximizing the capacity for each man or woman to create for themselves the life they desire without relying on the destruction of other human lives? If so, then you value not only your life, but other lives. In short, you value Life. And you value human life above all other as an artifact of self-preservation. 

Upon what bases can human life be valued so that the collective actions of every individual — no single life inherently more valuable than another — exist so that your life is held in the same esteem by others as it is by you?

By recognizing the universality of any individual's Right to exist. With that, you recognize, in tension, other's Right to Life as an extension of you valuing your own.

All other values stem from the premise of an individual, Natural Right simply to exist. Any action or construct contravening or in conflict with this baseline assumption is destructive to Life — and more particularly, destructive to your life, which you subjectively value.

So you have, as does everyone, a Natural Right to Life. You will it into existence just by being alive.

Should you be allowed to roam the world as a freeborn individual in pursuit of whatever you choose insofar as you do not abrogate other individual's Right to Life? Yes. 

Should you be allowed to defend what you create from those who choose not to recognize your freedom to roam and produce, defend it from those who would take what you have, leaving you in ruin and perhaps dead? Yes. 

Thus you have a Natural Right to keep and bear arms, weapons that allow you to defend against others who would deny your predicate Rights: the Right to Life, and equally the Right to enjoy the fruits of your life. 

No doubt you've noticed I've no more than restated the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. And in the defense of that, the Right to keep and bear arms. 

Branching out from these predicates — based as they are on you subjectively valuing your individual life, and you subjectively valuing a life that is long, physically more comfortable and prosperous — can an ordered society be based that propagates these things for all? Yes.

You value your life and agree to value all other's because Life, held in tension, has the capacity to create more order out of chaos, release more energy from where before it was held inert, to constitute from confusion or inactivity those things that further your own existence. 

Because you value your life, you value all Life. Because you value all Life, you strive to enhance structures that propagate Life. To achieve that, you recognize universal, unalienable, Natural Rights. Natural Rights exist to the benefit of all mankind, and most specifically: you. It is self-evident.

Natural Rights exist at our feet, no matter what anyone says or does, whole and intact, defenseless and empowering.

Human Rights simply exist and can be neither granted, nor withdrawn. Human Rights cannot be extinguished until you exterminate all mankind.

— GuardAmerican

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1   Shaman   2021 Feb 12, 2:33pm  

GuardAmerican says
Because you value your life, you value all Life.


Not everyone feels that way. Plenty of people are venal and envious and want to hurt other people they see as getting a better deal in life than themselves. Maybe they’re poor or not very gifted or just kind of plain or ugly. But they want to tear down people who have more natural abilities or are prettier and they want to destroy that which they couldn’t create. These people are the enemy, no matter what they call themselves. They have no respect for innocent life, and prefer to target the innocent as they are easier to destroy.

You can’t bargain with these people or ever accede to their demands. You have to fight them because what they truly want is to destroy you, even if they couch it in other terms. If they win, we all lose.

That’s why Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
2   GuardAmerican   2021 Feb 12, 4:51pm  

Shaman says
Plenty of people are venal and envious and want to hurt other people they see as getting a better deal in life than themselves.


True enough. But, as I note, the decision to value Life is subjective.

People who do not value Life do not value their own Lives.

Respond accordingly. Cuz they is a threat.
3   Patrick   2021 Feb 12, 7:11pm  

GuardAmerican says
You value your life and agree to value all other's because Life, held in tension, has the capacity to create more order out of chaos, release more energy from where before it was held inert, to constitute from confusion or inactivity those things that further your own existence. 

Because you value your life, you value all Life. Because you value all Life, you strive to enhance structures that propagate Life. To achieve that, you recognize universal, unalienable, Natural Rights. Natural Rights exist to the benefit of all mankind, and most specifically: you. It is self-evident.


I agree.

@GuardAmerican You might enjoy some of my own thoughts on the nature of life and self, though they are still not very well formed:

https://patrick.net/post/1336214/2020-10-31-readme-txt#Self
4   GuardAmerican   2021 Feb 12, 8:54pm  

Patrick says
You might enjoy some of my own thoughts


I’ll go take a little look and a little see.

Thanks!

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