Friday, March 27, 2009

Collective Rights

Mick Hartley extensively quotes some folks writing about the UN human rights apparatus, and how it's circling the bowl. This bit struck me:

...the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights has added 'peoples' as the rightful beneficiaries of human rights, so that governments, as their legal representatives, have assumed for themselves the rights of their people.

Faultlessly progressive, of course. And familiar: The "collective rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment holds that the word "people" in the text refers to the government acting as a proxy for the actual people. So you've got the powers of government, and delicately balanced against them you've got the rights of the people, which are actually exercised by the government. "Somebody's got to take care of it for them", remember? Now, once the government controls everything, that's pretty dangerous, right? So you've got to make sure the only people who get control are ones who'll always do what's right. You do that by banning all the other political parties. And mobilizing the people (both the actual people, and the rulers acting on their behalf) against the kulaks, or whatever, as needed.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009