Michael Mitchell: Archive

Why won't either side openly admit they don't believe in rights? Condemning abortion as murder is as ignorant and illogical as praising welfare as philanthropy. The answer is uncertainty. Most people don't really know what they believe in, but they know better than to give up their rights.

It's the same argument. In the context of abortion, the fetus' right to life is seen as more important than the pregnant woman's right to liberty. In the context of poverty, the poor person's right to life is seen as more important than an affluent person's right to property. But the perceived conflict only exists between two individuals, not in the same individual. There's no actual conflict between the right to life and the right to liberty or property, so the real issue is the belief that rights between individuals can conflict, and anyone who believes this simply doesn't believe in rights -- no one can have the right to violate someone else's rights -- but no one wants to either correct the contradiction or follow the logic to its conclusion in practice, which is obviously the end of political freedom. We want freedom, but we don't trust it at the same time, because we don't understand the concept of rights.