Dividing of Our Rights
A popular notion, which many believe, is that rights are for everyone without thought or effort or obligation, where privileges are only things which we, as “good and moral” human beings, strip from those who are not so “good and moral.” For example, education and voting are rights, yet driving is a privilege.
Our Founding Fathers and Framers were brilliant intellectuals. Yet, I must argue that so-called “unalienable rights” do not exist and never have. It is a whitewash of the human reality.
Case in point, Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author, in February 2005 stated a historic fact to a Swiss newspaper: “Thirty thousand Kurds, and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody dares to talk about it.”
What Pamuk is speaking about is the Armenian Genocide which took place in 1915. Moreover, the Turkish government does not acknowledge such a genocide ever occurred, even in the face of most historians worldwide.
In June 2005, the Turkish government passed Article 301 of their penal code. Article 301 states, “A person who publicly denigrates Turkishness, the Republic, or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and three years.” Furthermore, if a Turkish citizen denigrates Turkishness while aboard, “the punishment shall be increased by one third.”
Charges were brought after the fact against Pamuk, and another dozen or more Turkish citizens. From which Pamuk then experienced his books being burnt, photos being destroyed, and publicly being booed by his fellow citizens and once readers. He also received threats against his own life.
Keeping this instance in mind, one must agree that American rights (Freedom of Speech and Expression, in this case) are not universal and we cannot expect them to be so. If we are to respect each nation’s national identity, then we must accept each nation’s chosen identity.
All rights are only privileges, granted by the government or the authority in charge. A nation’s laws guarantee a citizen’s rights; thus, his or her rights are assured only as long as the nation’s laws remain unchanged.
We may possess the romantic ideals of human rights. Yet, these ideals are not natural laws, they are societal laws. If one, therefore, knows his or her history, one will know that societies fail all the time.
The main purpose for this article comes out of witnessing people’s myopic tendencies. Some people believe that all human beings have the same rights, but that is sadly not true. The natural law of survival of the fittest stands in testimony of this reality.
I, for one, would not want to imagine living in a nation where Freedom of Expression is not the First Amendment, yet billions do live in nations contrary to this.
From the First Amendment comes the ability of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of being one’s self. As Americans, we are honored, for all privileges must pass through the First Amendment.
However, as Americans, we must understand that the First Amendment is itself a privilege granted to us by the Framers and upheld by politicians and statesmen still today.
This column came from a column I read last week, where a guy was arguing about human rights and how all men and women have them. I wish there were “unalienable rights.” However, there are none. Even the basics as food and shelter are not rights, but privileges. So, it is our job to maintain the privileges we hold dear.
