Newsgroups: alt.polyamory
Subject: The Nature of Rights (was Re: So, you're straight... so far.) 
From: Gerard Deckert <ad1x+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 15:27:00 -0400 
 <lcm4m7INNl5q@exodus.Eng.Sun.<1992Oct10.090747.29821@nwnexus.WA.COM>
Organization: Junior, Biology, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

So it's about the nature of rights...

Excerpts from netnews.alt.polyamory: 10-Oct-92 Re: So, you're
straight... .. elf@halcyon.com (1815)

> In article <Bvt7CC.MFC@cck.coventry.ac.uk>
>      idx009@cck.coventry.ac.uk (the Crisco Kid) writes:

> >There is no "good" reason
> >(except that it pleases me, thee, or WeThe People) to entertain
> >any notion of consensuality - "good", that is, in any positive,
> >demonstrable, objective sense.  Subjectively, yes; but subjectivity
> >is just opinion, not fact.

>    *Smooch* Kay.  Just thought I should add that before we get to the
> meat of the subject, and 'cause I haven't flirted in a long time.


	Hi Elf - long time no type.  Hello, Kay, nice to meet you.  Both of you
are worried about rights (I'm generalizing from consensuality) being
subjective.  I'm here to say that rights have an objective basis - if
they didn't there would be no imperative to adhere to them (as you both
intimated).  As I've mentioned before, I'm an Objectivist, so I thought
I'd interject my views on this discussion...

(Note:  the following example applies to rational people who are acting
in their own self interest.  In this context, the notion of rights is an
objective absolute)

	Rational people participate in society because of the advantages to be
gained.  One doesn't have to get up and kill one's breakfast, or chop
wood to heat one's home, or walk to a stream to get water.  People
willingly participate in society, and wish to remain in society.  Since
society consists of a number of people, one must by necessity (and
usually willingly) interact with these people.  Rights are the moral
guidelines by which rational people interact in society.  If you wish to
remain a rational moral member of society, you must recognize and
respect the fact that all of the people that you interact with have
rights.  You see, it is the interaction which necessitates the rights. 
The concept of rights does not apply to a hermit, since he does not
interact with anyone else.  Also, animals are incapable of recognizing
and respecting rights (nor do they participate in a society), so the
concept of rights does not apply to them.
	Morals, like rights, are not (should not be) subjective or relative -
they can not be, without destroying the concepts of rights and morals. 
Morals, as a guideline for one's actions, derive directly from the
nature of rights.  Can a hermit commit immoral actions?  Can an animal?
	Hmmm.  Seems like I can't post without getting on a soapbox.  So be it.




> >            Kay

>          Elf !!!


						Gerry (objectively sexy :)

--
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Today's random quote:
"Touch is the most fundamental sense.  A baby experiences it, all over,
before he is born and long after he learns to use sight, hearing, or
taste, and no human ever ceases to need it.  Keep your children short on
pocket money - but long on hugs."

					-Lazarus Long

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Newsgroups: alt.polyamory