'The true Soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because He loves what is behind him.' -G. K. Chesterton

09 April 2009

Natural Rights

Life, Liberty and Property: The Natural Rights Theory

(This essay is totally inspired by Mr. Lewis, and parts are taken straight from my notes and his lectures. Please know that much of this is my twist on the window of information he opened for me. I’m in the process of climbing out that window, but I’m still leaning heavily on his expertise. It may not be perfect, and perhaps I should have gone in the order he did to make his points so brilliantly, but we're just gonna have to wing it and see what happens!)




The FFs had a few basic rules and beliefs when they went about drafting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The very first, and most important, was a right to property. Yep, property.

Everything I have is my property, you see. My life, my car, my body, my money, my liberty, my pursuit of gaining more of all the above (happiness). It’s all mine and no one else has a right to it. This wasn’t an idea that the FFs came up with themselves; however, the FFs were very well schooled and very intelligent men. They used the writing of men like John Locke, who wrote about mans’ natural rights in 1690 (The Second Treatise of Government), and Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations) as the cement for their ideas. By pulling from Ancient Greece and building on the documents of the past (like the Magna Carta), the FFs crafted a unique society based on a hard and fast faith in the Christian God and the idea that Government should be stay out of your way in your quest to better yourself. Truly the idea is simple and is seemingly lost in our modern world.

• The Natural Law Theory says that the rights of man came from God and not from government, that those rights belong to each man, and that they can only be taken away by God himself.

-In fact, the entire "Revolution" of the American revolution is that we took a top down government view (King, Nobility, People) and turned it around (People, States, Federal Government). More on that another day

• These rights are obvious and any man can see them for himself… they are self evident.

• Because they came from God, they are unalienable… no one but God can alienate them (take them away from you).

• Because the people are the recipients of Gods rights they have a right to govern themselves to maintain these Natural Rights, and they give government the right to intervene on their behalf in the attempt to maintain their property rights.

• The only rights we can give to government are rights we have ourselves, as they are the rights given to us by God and are, therefore, the only legitimate rights.

Lets illustrate, shall we?

-I can give to government the right to defend me from my neighbor because I have that right myself. I can give government some of my money because it is mine to give away.

-I cannot give government the right to my neighbors property. My neighbors money, for example, is his property; because it isn’t mine I can’t give it to someone else. The reason that only property owners could vote was that those elected controlled the coffers and taxation. Taxes collected money from those that owned property, and so only those affected had the right to elect people into positions of power.

So, if a man puts a gun to your head and demands your money, it’s stealing. If a man can elect an official that can tax your money from you and give it to him he is still stealing from you, he just has an intermediary.

The only rights the government has are the rights the people themselves have and have “lent” to the government. You cannot give the government the right to do something you yourself cannot do! You don’t have the right to steal, so you cannot give the right to the government to steal on your behalf!! All welfare is, is one man stealing from another via the government.

And if a non property owner has the right to vote himself a property owner’s money, what else can he vote himself? What about your liberty? What stops him from passing laws affecting your ability to work? (Yeah, Affirmative Action, ever heard of it?)

What about your body? Rape is a violation of property rights, yet if it is possible to vote the rights to someone else’s money why not to someone else’s body?

Now, please don't think I'm saying that Chairman O (totally stole that from Teh Resistance Blog) is going to start legalizing rape. My point is that as the government gained the ability to steal your money the path was cleared to ever expanding theft of our natural rights. A simply example would forced labor to install solar panels for no pay (but for the "greater good"). But, see, since it's the government making the demand, it is one done at threat of liberty and/or life (jail or death).

It may seem farfetched, but it is all the same double edged sword; what is and is not acceptable is a product of the society. 100 years ago abortion would have been OUTRAGEOUS! And yet how many Planned Parenthood offices are there now?? Trust when I say that what is not okay today in modern America may well be standard tomorrow.


Speaking of PP… What about murder? Murder is a violation of a property rights. And yet how many abortions are conducted each year? The Left claims that the baby isn’t a person and therefore has no rights to violate; the Right claims that it is a person and abortion, therefore, is murder. I’d say ask a woman who miscarried and see if she feels that she lost a person or a cluster of cells.

This is becoming a defining line in our society: what do you stand for? Selfish “freedom” to not have to bear consequences? Or do you stand for the right to life? The rights of all men, especially the weak and the helpless.

The Left have shown themselves to be selfish, to puts the rights of cop killers above the rights of the cops, and the “right” to promiscuity over the rights of a child to live. In the era of the FFs these types of people would be condemned as weak, cowardly and dangerous.

Now lets look at the Declaration of Independence as it was written, then I'll go through and add my own notes. I want you to see it whole first, before I start butting in and ruining the flow.

(Opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence)


When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Alrighty… A few notes, if I may.


When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another (leave a political system) and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station (make a new country) to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them (the natural right of man to govern himself), a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation (it’s nice to explain why we are leaving).

We hold these truths to be self-evident (anyone can see them), that all men are created equal (no one is born with the right to lead others), that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights (rights given to us, not by government, but by God), that among these are Life (1), Liberty (2) and the pursuit of Happiness (property, 3) (really all three are basic property rights and all fall under the same. It seems more that the FFs are trying to be specific). That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men (we make government), deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed (they govern cause we let ‘em), That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness (because I make the government, if I don’t like it I have the right to change it). Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty (DUTY!!) , to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security (don’t let them get away with it. Don’t get dogged and allow the government to be tyrannical). Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment
of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

This is simply the appetizer, Mr. Lewis had a list of the 5 questions that the FFs had to ask themselves, and answer, as they wrote the Constitution. Those questions and answers next as we continue the rediscovery of the lost USA.
The DO

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