Constant Conservative

After asking “What is A Right?”, Dave Price proceeds to answer:

A right is a freedom of action that an individual possesses, and need not be provided by another: if I hit you with a brick, I have violated your right to be free from harm, and if I steal your car, I have violated your right to be secure in your possessions.

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There is an effort underway to define minimum levels of highly desirable goods and services as “rights.” This is being done because it circumvents the normal process of legislating benefits for people and instead places such things at the same level as being free from harm. This is a very dangerous development as it undermines the most basic tenet of Western civilization — freedom.

I would add that the right vs privilege argument is due in large part to a dumbing down of the language. I believe that many people simply do not understand that a right has a legal basis, while a privilege (though it may be protected by law) is not constrained to exist. And one wonders how many people know that rights fall into classes (natural rights and civil rights)? Education is not the entire answer, but it must be part of it.