From: Dehede011@aol.com
Date: Fri Jan 10 2003 - 15:15:04 MST
In a message dated 1/10/2003 12:05:48 PM Central Standard Time,
charleshixsn@earthlink.net writes: "Rights cannot, per se, be relied on. And
it doesn't matter how righteously you personally have acted. Rights are a
social contract, and only exist in the context of that contract. When the
balence of power shifts drastically, expect that the social contract will be
re-written by the party with a new and more dominant role."
For centurys this was true. Then one day along came a group of men that
threw out the local ruler. These men felt that their rights were from nature
and nature's God. These rights were the possession of the individual and
were not received from the state. In fact they felt they had to have a
government but that at the same time government was the greatest threat to
their safety and welfare. So they formed a new government under a
constitution and decided what powers they wished the central government to
have. To maintain ultimate power over the society in their own hands they
wrote into the constitution certain guarentees of their power -- among these
are the right to speak freely and the right to bear arms.
And so this "social contract" has lasted far longer than the competing
"social contracts" of the day. You see, most men if left free to pursue
their own self interest would rather work for their own fulfullment than to
seek power over other men.
Ron h.
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