Right Ideas
I’m going to punt a little bit with tonight’s entry, and provide a couple of links that I think make for an interesting contrast.
Here’s the Library of Congress page on the Bill of Rights. You can even check out the two proposed amendments that were rejected (at least initially).
And here’s the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948.
I think if you read these two documents back to back, you get a pretty clear idea of how some people’s conception of what constitutes a right has changed. In no way am I diminishing the ideas in the Bill of Rights, but I kind of conceptualize them as a way of saying “Leave me alone” to the government. The UN Declaration goes beyond that – by the time you get to the part about rest and paid holidays, you can see that the view here depends on the idea that human beings have certain minimum requirements for a life of dignity and liberty.
And right there I think you have one of the most significant political and moral debates of the 20th and 21st centuries.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.