127 Rights

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Control is about what other people owe you which is why there is always clamor for some new entitlement or Right. For example, if charity was a Right, you would owe them, it wouldn't be your choice. That's why the battle over Rights is so ferocious: if someone can gain the claim to a new Right, power would have to realign to accommodate the new control. This has happened many times in the past, usually through The Courts. There are already many Rights that are not explicitly enumerated in the U.S. Constitution: Right to Privacy, Freedom of movement, Right to Die, Right to an Abortion, Gay Marriage, even Right to Vote. Without these constructed Rights, America would not be the success it is today, but notice how each each new Right moved control from the group to the individual, which is a good thing if liberty is your ideology.</p> <p>Rights, however, are not entirely carte blanche towards liberty. This is not a libertarian society: you only have rights because other people let you have them, otherwise it would not be democracy. At some point the desires of the majority will be counter to your own self-interest, and you may be forced to pay for a group function, like defense, healthcare, education or social entitlements. If you disagree then you must argue through The Courts to see if your personal desires supersede the desires of everyone else, and sometimes they do.</p>