Posted by
KsReaganite on Monday, April 13, 2009 8:42:49 PM
All individual rights are not created equal.
Europeans and Canadians indeed have a different concept of individual liberty than we do. To them, this concept conveys a sense of each individual’s autonomy in the context of a larger vision of progress and modernity as the latter two terms are interpreted by their respective societies’ two elite, bureaucrats with thorough administrative training and academics with an impressive set of credentials. Such definitions of progress and modernity are, from time to time, reflected in the charters of rights, responsibilities, and good behavior that are promulgated by the legislatures. In the other developed countries, thus, the idea of individual freedom is a function of the progress towards utopia. Such utopian modernity places little value on organized religion or nuclear families or self defense since, in the eyes of the dreamers of this utopia, none of these artifices of a bygone era of primal existence are necessary anymore. This utopia, in progress slowly but steadily, in the European Union and Canada, consequently, finds it not just legitimate but necessary to forbid some ‘hate’ speech, ban ‘incendiary’ books, criminalize self-defense, prosecute clergy speaking from their pulpits, and outlaw the activities of Christian student organizations on college campuses (yes, all of those things have already happened in various EU countries and in Canada). In a civilized society, the unspoken argument goes, shouldn’t we all got along and not offend each other? And if we won’t act thusly civilized, shouldn’t we be harshly punished for our petulance? After all, what’s freedom got to do with it?
Herein lies the difference between the American and Western European (I am including Canada in that category) concepts of individual rights. The American version of individual rights is descended from the Lockean philosophy of natural rights that the Founding Fathers wrote down in the Declaration of Independence as ‘unalienable’ liberties granted by God. In contrast, the European concept of individual rights is one of utility in that modern societies ‘should’ provide citizens with such rights-as long as they are in conformance with the elite notions of modernity. The difference on the ground, so to speak, is not always very visible to the casual eye. Nonetheless, the difference is there, it is genuine, and it is very fundamental.
Americans stressed out by trying economic times and impressed by messianic political or social leaders are well advised to heed that difference.