ANSWERS: 2
  • The Law. Rights (with the supposed exception of supposed "inalienable rights") are protections that are afforded to people by rule of law. When there is no law establishing AND implementing a particular right in a certain locale, then that particular right does not exist in that certain locale.
    • Shadow Of The Mind
      It sounds like the people who made such laws where some rights don’t exist corrupt. We live in a corrupt world where there are people who don’t think about every right a person has. It’s sad really.
    • www.bible-reviews.com
      I think it's equally often the case that the culture simply does not recognize such rights. Take freedom of speech, for example. In the U.S., that's a "fundamental right". In most nations (including most Western nations), that right is neither established nor protected by law. However: in most Western nations we have freedom of press. That is NOT a right in several nations today, and historically has NEVER BEEN a right in some of those nations. *** Yes: sometimes a corrupt government rescinds rights that a people previously had. BUT in some cases the culture simply does not perceive the right AS a right. Rights (of all sorts) have taken centuries to imagine, devise, ensconce in law, etc. For example: freedom of religion didn't exist in almost all nations until the 1800s. (The U.S. is an exception.) For example: freedom from slavery likewise. For example: the "right to life" was by no means protected by law in ancient times. (That is: the law had absolute authority over life and death, even in the case of nothing more than a whim of the authority, in very many ancient cultures. A private person could not kill another without due cause, but the governing officials most certainly could and often did do so.) Thus, in many ancient cultures, we see not only the "governor" or other official had carte blanche authority over the lives of those under their authority, but also the (male) head of the family had carte blanche authority of life and death over his family members and slaves. The idea of "rights" is still evolving, and it has taken humanity the entirety of the time (millennia) spent under rule of law to devise the rights that we DO recognize.
    • Shadow Of The Mind
      I understand. It would be ideal for governments around the world to allow for all rights to exist so as everyone gets the same treatment.
  • I'm confused now. The first response is dealing with legalities. I took your post to be referring to how we should treat others socially or morally. Can you clarify?
    • Shadow Of The Mind
      I refer to how people should treat each other morally.
    • notyouraveragedummy
      OK. Then I think Bible Reviews wrote a good answer. The one thing I would add is that no matter the era, no matter the place, the corruption is due to being humans on Earth (we're not in heaven).

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy