My attempt at rights definitions:
I think there are different kinds of rights. All rights need the cooperation of a cooperative society to be enforced, by definition. It's why i think the "right to protection from government interference" is an oxymoron.
Personal/physical rights:--I think these are rights that can be granted fairly easily and cost effectively by governments. They don't cost anything (other than enforcement), you just have to convince people not to break each other's rights, and define the line where one person's rights end and another's begin. These kinds of rights include:
personal safety from each other--you have the right not to be beaten/assaulted by your spouse, parent, teacher, health care provider, adult child, random guy on the street that thinks you're driving too slowly, etc. Your right to swing your arm around ends where my body begins. Same goes for your dick--everyone has the right to be protected from unwanted sexual contact.
The right to personal freedom--the right to not be kidnapped, the right to not be imprisioned without cause or legal representation, the right to not be controlled by a spouse or lover (i.e. you can't tell your wife when or if she can leave the house, or what she should be wearing when she does), the right to not be confined by an employer (locked in a building or chained to a work station, etc.)
The right to choose who you associate with, talk to, organize a group with...etc. If i want to join the communist party, labour union, green peace, aunt bea's weekly tea, quilting and s and m club, you have to fuck off and let me. You don't get to fire me or boot me out of a neighbourhood because i slept with a black guy or talked to that lovely lady who thinks the telephone pole is her dead grandma.
The right to do what i want with my own free time as long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else's rights. You don't get to fire me because i like topless beaches or post a picture of myself legally drinking on facebook.
You have the right to free speech--you have the right to spout whatever drivel comes into your empty vacuous head as long as it doesn't impinge on anyone else's right to not be defamed or beaten up, and does not pass off either crap you made up as fact or someone else's vacuous crap as your vacuous crap. So, the line is where you can jump up and down about how you think homosexuality is unhealthy, wrong, causes acne and effeminate dressing, etc. you cannot tell people to go out and kill beat up pour ketchup on gay people. and you cannot go around saying it's scientifically proven that homosexuality causes aids because it aint true.
personal/belief/political rights:--
you have the right to hold whatever fucked up religious beliefs appeal to you at the moment. If you want to spend halloween in the pumpkin patch praying to the great pumpkin, i have to let you. But you can't make me come with you, even if i'm your wife or daughter, and you can't teach it to my kids in public school (or anywhere else without my consent). You can even leave gideon's bible in motel rooms (as long as it's ok with the hotel, and you don't fret too much if i wipe up my kid's koolaid spill with it.)
we have the right to participate in choosing the people who will form the governing bodies of our collective societies (god help us). we have the right to vote and discuss our political beliefs both with the like minded and all those stupid people out there that disagree with me. You just don't have the right to do it at my mom's dinner parties or she'll make you do dishes.
Economic rights--this is where our society falls down, i think. we don't really consider anything to do with economics to be rights. we don't accept economic refugees from other countries, for instance. but i think the following are rights that we should be working on granting for the whole world.
the right to have enough healthy food and water and air. the right to health care as defined as life saving and prolonging procedures, and procedures to limit pain and improve quality of life to the best of our technological and knowledgable abilities. quality of life would need to be defined and redefined regularily. does plastic surgery improve the quality of life? what about for burn victims or the transgendered? the right to an education. the right to earn money and spend at least a portion of it as you see fit (i.e. after you have paid your share of the taxes that run the collective societies you belong to and participate in). the right to leave a job and get a new one if you want. the right to negotiate for better wages and conditions, and discuss this with your cooworkers. the right to be protected from discrimination in the workforce. the right to have all your other rights protected while in the place of employment.
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