Contemplate the relationship between rights, responsibilities, power and sovereignty.
We spend a lot of time talking about rights — the right to life, liberty and equality. Human rights, animal rights, constitutional rights, civil rights. The right to be free, to have a voice in the governance and decision-making that affects individual, social and planetary well-being. The right to clean water, clean air, an education, health care. The right to equal opportunities, and so on.
What are we really talking about, in all our talk about rights? Are these theoretical or aspirational rights? As in “It would be good if everyone had these” or “This is what we’re aiming for.”
Are they absolute rights, akin in some way to laws of nature, inherent in the very fact of existence?
Are they rights because we say so? As in “We, as a species, are committed to ensuring that everyone has these and we’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen?”
What makes them rights, as opposed to something else — wishes, values propositions, intentions, goals, aspirations?
If these rights are more than simply abstract notions, who is responsible for delivering them? How do we assign or accept that responsibility? How do we measure how effectively the responsibilities for delivering those rights are being met? What are the mechanisms of accountability? What are the mechanisms of redress?
Are rights determined by individual nations, via their own constitutions or other instruments of governance, including the judiciary?
Are there such things as universal rights, or is that just rhetoric? If our rhetoric embodies our values, then how do we act to make rights universal?
The question remains, what do we need to do, to bring our vision of universal rights into 3-D reality? We must begin by re-ordering our priorities, the choices we make and the responsibilities we commit ourselves to, as individuals, first. Without that, there’s no foundation for the communal, co-creative work necessary to bring about universal rights.
Maybe the rhetoric of rights needs to be reframed to something more modest, more aligned with the truth of things.
We don’t have the capacity to deliver rights, but we do have the capacity to join together — as members of a human community, as partners with the subtle energy beings who hold the blueprints for the emergence of all forms of life — to be agents of provision, nurturance, freedom, sovereignty, justice, equity and so on. If we are willing to act on behalf of all beings β not just human beings β we have the creativity and resources to ensure that all life has what it needs to thrive.
I don’t know if this is doable, but I do know that if we don’t do what we can, and begin where we are, nothing will change. If we act to bring this vision down to earth, it may be as a highly flawed and partial version of its potentiality, but it it will evolve and grow to benefit life on this planet. Otherwise, we’re left with rhetoric and abstractions and not much else.βοΈβοΈ
You must be logged in to post a comment.