The Tyranny of Rights

(Originally posted: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 5:36pm)

"Vacationing a human right, EU chief says"

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/news/Vacationing+human+right+chief+says/2924330/story.html

"The European Union has declared travelling a human right, and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers' dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips.

Antonio Tajani, the European Union commissioner for enterprise and industry, proposed a strategy that could cost European taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros a year, The Times of London reports.

"Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life," Mr. Tajani told a group of ministers at The European Tourism Stakeholders Conference in Madrid on April 15."

This is the natural progression of leftist attempts to define human "rights" based on an ambiguous moral and ethical philosophy that can shift according to ideological whims and majority sentiment. As with calls for "health care" as a human right, the provision of food as a human right, etc., the question remains, "where does it end?" Why not make at least one automobile for every person a human right? Why not make at least one nice suit or evening gown for every person a human right? Why not a pet dog with government-subsidized food a human right? Why not taxpayer-funded vacations a....wait a second...

By highlighting the extreme, and in this case the reality, we see how the postmodern idea of unrestrained "human rights" not only cheapens true rights - among them life, liberty, and the freedom to pursue happiness - but it becomes tyrannical in scope and ambition. The reason is because all of these new rights will require the infringement of true human rights. For example, in order to pay for health care for everyone, the government will take your property to fund it, which infringes on your right to pursue happiness free from government interference and theft. And then in order to assure a modicum of care for each person, medical care will have to be rationed (as it has been in every society or nation that tried it - think the U.S.S.R.), thus infringing on your right to life. In the end, everyone loses, rights become meaningless, and tyranny is the only result.

The American Founding Fathers, men of Christian beliefs and ideals, understood that human "rights" only come from God. Because they come from a Creator, and cannot be decided by powerful men, bureaucrats, or a majority of public opinion, these rights can never be infringed upon, altered, or changed. God-given rights are also the rightful property of every person on earth, whether poor, rich, man, woman, white, black, or Asian.

Sadly, powerful men in control of governments now believe that they have the "right" to dictate what our "new rights" are, and we the people shall only suffer as a result.