Rights

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The concept that all human beings have "rights" is a moral imperative, a "should" sort of claim: all human beings should freely exercise their rights. But is it obvious? It was definitely not obvious for thousands and thousands of years of civilization. 

Kings and emperors throughout history might rule kindly from time to time, but their governing paradigm was not to preserve peoples' rights. They held their power position because of birth or force, but either way they did what they pleased. It's called "totalitarian" when there's no greater authority than the ruler or the government and they have total control.

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American founders wanted to break that mold. They took the "Imago Dei" concept from the Bible (that humans are all created in the image of God) and crafted a government around it:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Radical.