So-Called "Rights"

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There has been a lot of talk of late about so-called 'rights'. Many of these things may be common today, but when I was born, they were not so. The wide-spread enjoyment of rights is a relatively recent innovation. Most of recorded history has been a repeated cycle in which one tyrant passes power to another, by will or by blood. Although many people have never had it so good, it's never enough, and they want more.

Just today alone, I have seen people post things about 'rights' that don't exist. This morning, there was a story on yesterday's student protest for the 'right of education' that was nothing more than an inflammatory fit. Then there was a blog article I read about the 'right to healthcare'. The story of those who advocate these rights seems to be the same, even down to the faces of some students who lobby for them. It is however not a mature way to handle something to say "give me what I want or I will be a miscreant".

Today, however, I also saw something that gave my arguments power. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr admitted that these rights aren't in the Constitution. They desire to put them into it. There is currently no actual legal right to things such as health care, education, and a home. You can watch him talk about it on cSPAN:

The thing is that rights don't come from government. They come from God. Unless they come from somewhere other than man, they can be taken away by man on a whim. If government grants you something, it's really an 'entitlement', not a right, and if it can be taken away, it's not a right at all. These rights are unalienable, meaning that they cannot be removed by man. Inga Barks said years back, "There is God and there is government. God is greater than government, and government doesn't like that." They want you to remember why you need them.

These politicians don't care much what you think unless it's what you think about them. They want you to be beholden to them for everything. At first, they may extend to you some new freedoms you've never had and give you free handouts, but in the end, all oppressors are all-oppressive, and you will rue the day you handed them the reigns of your life. Things are better for us today than they ever have been, and the things that are wrong will not be changed for the better until and unless the men who change them do so without guile, without ulterior motive, and without gain. I challenge you that if you want what is right, first do what is right, and I promise you that the consequence will follow.