Originally posted by someguy420
1. The Right to Clean Food, Air, and Water.
2. The Right to Shelter
3. The Right to Travel Freely
4. The Right to QUALITY Healthcare
5. The Right to a REAL education
6. The Right to explore consciousness with mind altering substances in a responsible manner.
7. The Right to grow and use any plants that have evolved on this earth alongside us
8. The Right to pursue whichever path one desires as long as they do not harm anyone else
Overall I feel that these should be the rights of all humans.
Come on people I'm sure you can think of plenty more, Please do.
Please Flag.
I will respond to this because of my compulsion to react to lists like these....
1. The Right to Clean Food, Air, and Water.
Presumably, this is to say that all people should have a healthy environment, free from toxins and harmful waste. That to deny such an environment as
is necessary to support and maintain a person's existence is contrary to acceptable human conduct.
Yet, toxins and waste are a byproduct of nearly every human activity. Therefore, in order to provide for the positive action of securing this right,
all those who produce waste which could be construed as offenders against this right, making necessary some consequence, or having to 'pay for'
(somehow,) the unavoidable 'price' of the nature of things such as metabolsim.
Since every enterprise, and every undertaking of human progress impacts the enviornment somehow, it follows that someone's "rights" will always
'qualify' as being 'breached', hence such a right is a guarantee of conflict and contention.
The right you seek as stated is not reconcileable with societal activities.
I don't disagree with the intent, but it must be restated to allow for the fact that technically, every time we exhale or eliminate waste, we are
impacting the remainder of society. Everytime we engage in what we can loosely define a progress or enterprise, we are guilty of some violation of
this precept.
2. The Right to Shelter
Which is to say what? That if I find a hole to live in - once there - I cannot be compelled to leave? That someone must provide for me to have a
location in which to store all my crap? That ultimatley I have a right to a certain amount of space in from which to conduct the business of living
my life, raising my kids, sleeping, eating, etc.?
This raises many potential problems. How much space is 'enough'? What if there is no space available without impinging onthe space of others? Who
'deserves' more... people with more kids? What happens when those kids grow up, where does the news space come from?
Does it mean that an overpopulated area has the right to simply move in to a sparsely populated area?
Again, the priciple is sound, but the wording will lead to conflict.
3. The Right to Travel Freely
Would this include the right to move over, onto, or through someone else's property? Would this not open up some very troubling issues insofar as
peoples who are displaced, through no fault of their own, by war, climate changes, or economics?
I too have a disdain for the way lines are drawn on maps and then we are suddenly responsible to "obey" them. I also believe that if my family or
friends or business require me to move about, the government, nor anyone else should slap contrived restrictions or legal blocks to my freedom to move
about in the course of my life.
But one right necessarily threatens another in this case, and how such a right could be defended is a challenge that could never be eliminated.
4. The Right to QUALITY Healthcare
And what if QUALITY health care is not available? Who determines what QUALITY health care is? The service provider? The financial middlemen? The
academic community? Political ideologues? Lawyers?
There are many questions. mostly skirted or obfuscated by the corporate/governemnt types, that must be defined and codified before such a right can be
attributed to any person on the planet. Access, standards, and accountability, for example.
This is obviously a political issue now. But in the end, it will prove to be a business issue. Unless paradigms shift and politicians become
isolated from the corporate agenda..., OR if the medical community divorces itself from the profit model.
5. The Right to a REAL education
I'll hop right on the soap-box with you on this one. Unfortuantely, we have decended into a culture where political expedience outweighs facts.
I'm not sure we can expect anyone to enforce a rule that would lead to their embarrassment or exposure to accusation.
While I believe access to the truth should be a right, and as far as I am concerned IS a right, such a poistion is of no consequence to the
organizations planning out what 'education' is supposed to achieve. For the most powerful and entrenched interests - the purpose of education is
profit. For the zealous it is indoctrination. For the remainder it is social currency. None of those three have anything to do with learning -
interesting that.
6. The Right to explore consciousness with mind altering substances in a responsible manner.
I see where you are headed with this. You would be thwarted in your pursuit of this as a 'right'. In order for the right to exist you must take
away the "with" clause....
7. The Right to grow and use any plants that have evolved on this earth alongside us
I think this is meant to go along side number 6. The problems there are the same as the problems in this one.
8. The Right to pursue whichever path one desires as long as they do not harm anyone else
You will have to define 'path' to make this stick. It is so vague as to beg exclusion from the list.
Peace
[edit on 17-12-2009 by Maxmars]