The Science of Liberty
The Natural Rights and Eternal Truths
If one would study history with a wide perspective, and look at the world today with the same wide view, one would realize that certain systems of civilization produces freedom, and other systems will be an enslavement. It is cruical to understand the basic foundation behind both liberty and tyranny, so as to choose between the two in the real world.
First it should be answered, what makes right? And where does it come from?
Throughout the history of the world, families, builders, conquerors and tyrants, thinkers and poets, as all of humankind, they have been part of something greater; life, the test, and the flow that is time. In the end it is the story of a struggle. One fought between the spirit of liberation and domination, between freedom and coercion. So where do rights come from?
Is one person or group justified in controlling another one if they can? And does not might equal right? Or is it majority and greater number that equals right? What else is there?
Imagine this scenario
A man has ventured to the wilderness to gather food, another one has grown the fields, and yet another person has worked in some other way, to put food on the table. Now, any sane person would agree that they have a right to the food that they worked for, but why is that exactly?
If a mightier person decides to take the food for their own gain, or if the group with the greater number and therefore in the name of the greater good, decides to take the food, is this lawful according to the laws of nature? According to the laws of the universe?
The reason it is not, is because of the same reason why no one has the right to throw you into bondage and separate you from your freedoms. Your body, soul and very being is your property, and all of your rights derive from that.
All of your rights derive from you as a person being the property of yourself
And so, all rights derive from property. The very concept of property means to have the right over something. And thus, the food is the property of the ones who in some way rightfully acquired it. Even more; the labour that a person does, is their own property, their own body and energy. And no one can have a right to someone else’s body, soul and labour.
Thus, the only restrictions on your rights, are the rights of others. It is part of the golden rule.
John Locke summed it up with:
” Life, Liberty and Property.”
And that is the natural rights, which themselves are eternal truths.
The Opposite, The Science of Tyranny
The biggest reason a tyranny can still stand despite the truth is very simple. Even though the rights are granted by nature and existence itself, the science of tyranny will exploit the fact that most people are not aware of their rights by default. It will be taught instead that only the ruler has innate rights. The system is called the Divine Right of Kings, and it tries to justify the rulers positions by claiming that they alone have natural rights. Only they are endowed by the creator, it will be said, and so they have a right to might.
In truth it is the right of might, and nothing else.
In such a society, as in all oppressive systems, everyone else has to ask for permission from the ruler – a privilege that can be revoked – to do things that they in reality, already have the right to do. In a free society, you would need the privilege to use someone else’s property, but not for things of your own life, liberty and property. A privilege is the opposite of a right, and implies you are doing something beyond the limits of your rights.
When the Divine Right of Kings is not enough
Eventually however, with the gradual clarity that enlightenment brings to society, the concept of the Divine right of kings is exposed. A point is reached in the people’s understanding where they get wise to some of the old tricks. Tyranny is deprived of a simple way of power. An obvious, some would even say more honest way of power, as they at least do not often pretend to be men of the people. But the facade of Divine Right of kings is no match to even the first sparks of enlightenment. Any tyranny that want’s to keep it’s power, will have to turn to more scientific tricks. More complex tricks.
More Complex Deception
With the open declaration of ‘Divine right of kings’ having fallen and shattered, some of the power elite will still be smart enough to not only stay in power, but to gain more.
They will exploit the fact that still only a minority truly understand the innate rights of every individual. At best there may at least be brought in the appearance of freedom. New governments, supposedly by and for the people, will grant the people the rights that they do indeed have:
In the most beautiful written of documents, it will be proclaimed, that once and for all the people are granted all kinds of rights. Freedom of Speech, free houses, free money, freedom from responsibility. So has liberty won the day? At last, have they been defeated?
Not yet, because in here lies the great fallacy. Supposed rights granting people free property by law, is incompatible with the fact that what a government gives to you it must first take from someone else. And further more, Governments can not grant you any rights. They do not come from a piece of paper, they do not come from the written laws of a document. Such granted rights can be revoked. The natural rights are innate to every human born into the universe. If government grants you something, it’s a privilege. Only the documents that tell the government what they can and can’t do, only those documents truly recognize that it is not a matter of granting rights, but of restricting government, and recognizing rights. Power corrupts, even when elected.
The next, more extreme level of deception, is much greater. And at the same time more exploitive of good intention.
Individualism vs. Collectivism
The endowment of natural rights to every individual, is a truth that can be called individualism.
The opposite is collectivism. It is a word that can mean many things among people. We are individuals in a collective. However in the context of governmental structures, rights and society, it is the idea that it is the group that is the legitimate unit of society. It proclaims, that if something is important enough for the greater good, then the state should step in and force everyone to conform. It is at the expense of the natural and true rights and it is actually not for the greater good.
Because you see, the group does not truly exist, except as an abstract concept in the mind, meaning a collective made up of two or more sovereign individuals. That’s all it means.
It is like the forest; You may say you are looking at the forest, but really, you are looking at trees. Many individual trees. You can touch a tree, but you can not touch a forest.
And since rights derive from property, then what does it mean when all property except that of the state is outlawed, usually in the name of distribution? That’s right. No private property, no human rights. You don’t even own yourself in such a system!
Just the same
In truth, the very concept of collectivism is just the same as the old divine right of kings, the same pyramid control system, only that in the end it is sold as a benevolent tyranny. A tyranny by the group against the individual. But since only individuals exists the result is that a grey herd of a uniform collective is directed to serve and follow the directives of a focal point of decision, wielding all the power, the so called ”benevolent leaders”. (Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot)
Tyranny in the name of the people
By nature it is predatory against any independence. A war on free thought and the end of sovereignty, to erase any trace of an individual.
In short, it seeks to enslave and exploit the people, in the name of the people. The very principle of slavery is based on “Collectivism”.
A Mathematical Concept
Some relativistic people void of a stabilizing anchor, will say that a bigger group of individuals have more rights than a smaller group of individuals. A mathematical concept that three people have the right to tell two people what to do, in the name of the greater good of course.
If the truth has not already become clear then now it should; Human rights are not about mathematics, it’s about morals.
Eternal truths, giving us all our own divine right of kings, over ourselves.