From: Terry Donaghe (tdonaghe@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jan 14 1999 - 08:12:45 MST
---"Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@together.net> wrote:
>
> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> > > > So, Mr. "Macht macht recht"
> > >
> > > You joke about it, but actually "might makes right" can be
> > > taken quite literally. Rights without might are paper tigers.
> >
> > An argument I have found effective in communicating this point:
> > During the cold war, the USSR constitution included a guarantee
> > of free speech to all citizens, just as the US constitution does.
> > Why then was reality such that Americans had moderately free
> > speech and Soviets did not? Because in the US, the people with
> > the guns (cops, federal agencies, military, and many citizens)
> > /believed/ in a greater level of free speech than did the Soviets
> > (though still not very free by some measures).
>
> Using might to enforce rights is merely one possible manner of
enforcing
> respect for natural rights. Since the right to defend oneself is a
natural
> right, using force *as an individual* to defend one's rights is a
matter of
> natural law. Using force to deprive others of rights is against
natural law.
> This shows that while force is not objectively moral or immoral, it
can be
> used to either objectively moral or immoral ends. So you see, force
is merely
> a means to an end, not the end in and of itself. "It is the right that
> defends all other rights."
>
> Subjectivists try to deny that force follows from the natural right to
> defense, because they want to deny the existence of natural rights.
Nothing
> scares me more than subjectivists in government positions, because
they are
> the ones who have the greatest potential to become tyrants.
>
> Mike Lorrey
>
Are there *ANY* non-subjectivists in government positions? An
objectivist would probably die rather than take a job in our current
"government".
==
Terry Donaghe: terry@donaghe.com
My Homepage: <http://www.donaghe.com/terry.htm> - Recently Updated!!
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