My view of rights that people should have is different for
time periods since the late 18th
Century. Back in the time that
Monarchal governments were common among nations, I feel that it was very
important and necessary for people to be awarded their natural liberties,
because too many of them lived substandard lives and were discriminated against
based on education level or societal class.
Anytime throughout history that people have been oppressed , I think it
is/was a major problem. Each individual
should have some control over their own life.
Based on the idea of humans living in the state of nature, the
legitimacy of governments is founded.
Governments were formed as the best means to provide protection for
groups of humans so that they could combine their abilities for the common good
of all. If it weren’t for the formation
of governments, every human would be forced to fend for themselves their entire
lives, which doesn’t seem very conducive to a long, peaceful life. The problem with governments, is that all too
often, once in power they begin to erode the personal liberties of all citizens
and mask this action behind a need for common defense or wellbeing.
In
today’s world of more representative governments, I do believe that socially,
every citizen should be given an equal opportunity to succeed and
flourish. That is where the
responsibility of the government should cease, though. Once a government affords all its citizens
with an equal starting point, based in the natural rights of a human being, it
should then become more hands off and let them either flourish or fail on their
own. Redistribution of property, wealth,
success, should not be permitted or tolerated.
When things beyond natural rights and freedom to make decisions are
given to people, it pushes a society ever so closer to losing the will to exert
maximum effort to succeed. Why would I
take risks and work hard to succeed when I know that I can be lazy and the
government will make up for my shortcomings a the expense of someone else. There has never been a time that political
rights should have been consolidated in one group and not another. Everyone deserves an equal say about what
they feel is the best way to live their lives.
In a free society, however, there will always be some individuals or
groups that are better off than others, whether it be monetarily or
educationally, and it is for this reason that different people’s opinions
should be held in different merit. For
example, if there is a group that only pushes for the wellbeing of their group,
and not the community as a whole, that view should not be held in the same
regard as an idea that will benefit the entire community. While all should be treated with an equality
of opportunity, not all should be guaranteed equality of outcome in life.
