Only True Rights Have Responsibilities
By Ann Huggett (10/28/03)
George Orwell's Animal Farm is a perfect allegorical satire of what happens to a nation when it succumbs to the seduction of socialism and makes up the rules as it goes along. A telling and highly significant scene is when the stupefied body of Squealer the pig is found sleeping off the previous night's whiskey soaked escapade of altering the Commandments of Animalism.
Both physically and mentally asleep at the time, the other animals only notice the changes days later but don't trust their fuzzy memories of what once was. Because they believed in the benevolence of their self-appointed rulers, the animals were systematically stripped of their freedom.
In the real world it's harder to tell who the pigs are but their attacks on the rights of citizens are a dead give away. The United States of America is particularly blessed in that it has a written Constitution and a Bill of Rights. Clearly written and easily understood, America's Bill of Rights limits governmental power and its control over the people. It is, in a sense, a negative document in that it tells the government what it cannot do. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom to the people but it is up to the people to guard, protect, and defend their rights from governmental encroachment.
A people jealous of its freedom is a population aware of its rights. Inferred in the enjoyment of these rights is the duty to know them and exercise them responsibly. The people's real power resides in themselves and their knowledge and understanding that these rights come from a source higher than the state. That is why America's rights are always credited as God-given. No state can gainsay them but the state can surreptitiously destroy the people's rights through encouraging ignorance and purposely misinterpreting the Constitution.
Keeping Squealer's antics in mind, it is the responsibility of the people to not only know their rights but to exercise them with the same responsibility. However, a corrupted people will accept any interpretation of their rights that the state cares to make to its benefit. Currently, in the United States any reference to God is ruthlessly expunged from governmentally funded schools or public buildings by the false claim that the Constitution mandates the separation of church and state. Freedom of speech and the press carries with it the responsibility of honesty and informed opinions. Just as one cannot yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, one cannot condone the press acting as a mouthpiece/propaganda machine in collusion with a particular political party. The statist agenda, claiming the First Amendment protects pornography while any honest examination of race relations or illegal immigration is ruthlessly shouted down as "hate speech "or" racism, routinely corrupts freedom of speech.
Gun control legislation routinely ignores Second Amendment rights. Our Founding Fathers trusted the people to act responsibly with their weaponry. The very life of the nation depended on a well-armed militia that was drawn from the civilian populace. That was the implied compact in the Second Amendment. Americans then and now understood that guns were not toys or killing machines just waiting to jump off a table and start firing on their own volition. Gun ownership carries with it a duty to act responsibly. Claiming to protect children, gun control laws are meant to purposely infringe on the right of the people to bear arms because a government that fears the people will disarm them. The National Rifle Association's defense of the Second Amendment and its educational policies are a prime example of people not only defending their freedom but taking on their responsibility to uphold the Constitution.
Implied consent laws routinely break the Fourth Amendment although a Georgia federal judge just ruled them unconstitutional. Driving is not a right but a privilege allowed by the individual states. The driver has a duty to drive responsibly but a roadside checkpoint, where there is no suspicion of alcohol or drug-impaired driving, is an unnecessary form of search. It essentially subjects the individual to state inspection for no reason.
Although one has the responsibility to conduct themselves in accordance with the law, speedy trials, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, seem to be a thing of the past and excessive bails are routinely imposed even though the Eighth Amendment forbids them.
The statist agenda is much more easily imposed through judicial activism than it is through the legislative process. Progressives routinely describe the US Constitution as a "Living Document" thereby encouraging liberal judges to hallucinate new penumbral "rights" as abortion, homosexual unions, or institutionalized racism also known as Affirmative Action. Supreme Court activist judges such as Breyer and O'Connor openly admit that they are changing American Constitutional law in order to bring it more in line with foreign laws.
American law owes a debt of thanks to the precedents set by English Common Law but is superior to it in that America has a written Constitution. The Constitution of the UK is not written down even though they are adherents to the Rule of Law, hold to the Supremacy of Parliament, and still have remnants of an independent judiciary. A person in the UK is a subject, not a citizen, in that they are subject to Her Majesty's Laws. As long as men of intelligence, goodwill, and patriotism are in Parliament, the UK is governed well.
When they are ruled by men with agendas antithetical to the welfare of the kingdom, then the people suffer. Currently the very foundations of British law and culture are being altered to bring them into line with European Union laws and Continental attitudes. The European Union, comprised of old historical enemies of the UK, has imposed devastating conditions on the UK in order to destroy it economically and nationally.
Such freedoms as speech, self-defense, gun ownership, fishing and hunting, home security, parental control, and property rights are things of the past as progressive judges subvert British law. Even though the UK has an established state religion, Christian symbols are being stripped from public display. The Union Jack is rarely flown with the claims that it might offend Third World immigrants as a racist reminder of Britain's colonial past. The Queen, whom her subjects look to in hopes that the madness will stop, merely acts as a rubber stamp for the socialists running her Labour government.
The EU, on the other hand, has a written, yet still to be ratified constitution that would make Santa Claus proud. Often described as a "train wreck waiting to happen", it is a goody bag of guaranteed "rights", devoid of any responsibilities, and done by the whims of unelected socialist bureaucrats in order to ensnare the populace into a cradle-to-grave Nanny State. This constitution does not empower the people nor does it even consider them individuals. To the EU, a person is 1/1000th of an EU Population Unit with 1000 people making up one EU Unit. The EU constitution tells its Population Units what it will do to/for them. The EU guarantees jobs, water quality, gender equality, sustainable energy, and a myriad of other high cost demands that the people can make on the state IF the state can afford or is inclined to do so. One irony is the EU's promise of universal health care when it recently informed the UK that it would have to eventually rid itself of its National Healthcare System since it was too expensive to maintain at EU expense.
The ultimate example of an Animal Farm style constitution is the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, totally devoid of true moral authority or the physical ability to carry it out, but looking all-inclusive and caring on paper. It contains such Marxist gems as, "Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection." (Article 23, Section 3) or "Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality." (Article 25)
The above quotes sound like "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Or compare Article 1, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." to Animal Farm's, "1.Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes on four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall kill any other animal.... 7. All animals are equal." That sounds so much like Orwell's Seven Commandments of Animalism that one almost wants to bleat, " Four legs gooooood, two legs baaaaaaad."
This then is the true test for actual rights as opposed to the pseudo-rights of the socialist welfare state: Real rights carry with them responsibilities. Not only are these rights to be carried out in a responsible manner but also it is the duty of those so blessed to protect, defend, and preserve those rights for themselves and future generations.
The EU Constitution and the UN's Declaration of Human Rights carry with them no responsibilities, just "guarantees" that ring hollow. Both systems are purposely vague in wording and designed to do things to people or to grant welfare as the mood strikes. In effect they do not enumerate rights so much as grant privileges as defined by international progressives. There are no brakes or limits on the size or intrusiveness of government nor are they open to criticism or accountability. A responsible people, mindful of their actual rights will reject the siren call of international socialism, recognizing it for the tyrannical trap it is.
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