TallDarkAndWitty
Posts: 1893
Joined: 6/12/2004 From: Rochester, NY Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: becca333 Why is it terrible if a government commits a particular act, but fine if the same thing is done by an individual? I object to anyone, government OR individual, abusing my rights. It has to do with the concept of The Social Contract as invisioned by John Locke (amongst others) during The Enlightenment (a period of time in which some aastinishing advancements were made in the areas of polotics, economics, math, philosophy and other arts and sciences...it occurred roughly around the time of the American Revolution). Rights, you see, are not given to us by any person or government. Rather, we have them simply though our own humanity (or some think they are given to us by God). The Social Contract is formed so that men can apply the power of the group toward the protection of those rights (through laws and civil procedures). However, The Enlightenment thinkers also saw the problem with giving power to a group of people. Mobs tend to be unruly, and even the best laid plans can go wrong when the power of the mob takes over. Our civil liberties are an enumeration of rights that even the mob (or government) can not step on (without due process). People during The Enligentenment were much more concerned with the power of the mob than they were of the power of any individual, so the protections they built into their systems of governance had to do with protection of people from the government themselves, and not from other people. They figured that the states and localities would figure all the people vs. people stuff out. Unfortunately, most people have no idea that any of this happened or why our government is stuctured the way it is, so they think that the First Ammendment protects you from being kicked out of a resturant for wearing a t-shirt with a profanity on it, or that it protects the Dixie Chicks from being booed and boycotted for saying something offensive to a certain group of people. Taggard
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A most rewarding compliment is an insult from the ill-informed. My slave: Kat (RainaVerene on the other side) and her website: RainaVerene.com
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