Negative Versus Positive Rights

An interesting piece at Moonbattery.com sponsor Ammo.com highlights an essential difference between moonbattery and countermoonbattery. It lies in the difference between negative and positive rights.

Negative rights include those enumerated in the Bill of Rights. They are regarded as inherent rights, secured but not granted by government. All they require from others is that the individual be left unmolested.

For example, private property, free speech, and freedom of association are negative rights. In other words, these are rights that prevent others – above all, the state – from transgressing on you personally or on your property.

With these rights come responsibilities.

On the other hand, positive rights are granted by the government and involve the trampling of an individual or another class of individuals’ rights. These kinds of rights – like state-funded healthcare or public education – are justified on abstract grounds, such as the “public good” or the “general will.” By their very nature, they require the state to take from one group in order to give to another, usually in the form of taxes.

Negative rights offer liberty. Positive rights offer to make us “free” — generally at the expense of liberty.

The two types of rights are not compatible. To the extent that you have a right to healthcare, you do not have property rights. To the extent that you have a right not to be offended by “hate speech,” you do not have the right of free speech.

The American Revolution was based on securing liberty for the individual — i.e., negative rights. In contrast, the French Revolution was based on imposing equality and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s conception of a general will, implemented by a powerful government.

The American Revolution resulted in the most successful nation state in history. The French Revolution resulted in the Reign of Terror and chaos.

Yet the French Revolution has been emulated by most revolutions since, despite this path inevitably leading to tyranny. Even in America, many people would discard individual liberty in exchange for the “freedom” of living under an all-powerful government that sees to our needs. This is because people like to wield power over others. To achieve it, they exploit the gullibility of moonbats.

The whole piece is worth reading; it sheds some light on what is going on in Venezuela right now. While you are there, stock up on discount ammo.

The post Negative Versus Positive Rights appeared first on Moonbattery.