The following have been granted you:
1. The right to sense: From the moment of your birth on you will receive feedback. Some of this you may choose to act on, some you may act on by instinct. In the rare cases that you do not have any senses you may not have even realized you were alive. Not all of it will be pleasant, but it will be motivational.
2. The right to be Ignorant: You know nothing unless you decide otherwise. You are born knowing nothing, and learn to do things by experience. It is not all going to be pleasant, and in a different kind of unpleasant than the senses.
3. The right to happiness: Sit there. Play with yourself. Drool, soil yourself, and smile, not knowing any different or any better. Sleep when you are tired, eat when you are hungry, seek comfort when things are not comfortable. Rail, scream, and flail against anything that stops you from doing these things. This is the disgusting indolent impulse behind all your happiness. Enjoy it, you can't spell "idiot" without "id".
4. The right to die: Without exception; your time alive will expire.
5. The right, at any time, by your own efforts, to improve yourself. Note that no one has to tell you this.
I like this. I've thought for a while now, that the only true natural right is the right to struggle (which seems to be similar to your number 3 and 5), and i like the simplicity in that. but based on number 4, it seems i have to expand my list. i hadn't considered the corollary right to not struggle. although i guess, i could just append ',or not' to the end of my single right.
numbers 1 and 2 seem to be given conditions rather than rights though, no? i mean they don't seem to involve an act of will that could count as exercising a right.
Quote from: Richter on April 04, 2013, 02:33:50 AM
The following have been granted you:
1. The right to sense: From the moment of your birth on you will receive feedback. Some of this you may choose to act on, some you may act on by instinct. In the rare cases that you do not have any senses you may not have even realized you were alive. Not all of it will be pleasant, but it will be motivational.
2. The right to be Ignorant: You know nothing unless you decide otherwise. You are born knowing nothing, and learn to do things by experience. It is not all going to be pleasant, and in a different kind of unpleasant than the senses.
3. The right to happiness: Sit there. Play with yourself. Drool, soil yourself, and smile, not knowing any different or any better. Sleep when you are tired, eat when you are hungry, seek comfort when things are not comfortable. Rail, scream, and flail against anything that stops you from doing these things. This is the disgusting indolent impulse behind all your happiness. Enjoy it, you can't spell "idiot" without "id".
4. The right to die: Without exception; your time alive will expire.
5. The right, at any time, by your own efforts, to improve yourself. Note that no one has to tell you this.
You have the right to be savaged by corporations, banks, or their lackeys.
You have the right to someone else's religion.
You have the right to sing the blues (quietly).
You have the right to be mauled by the TSA.
You have the right to a face full of bear spray during a routine traffic stop.
You have the right to pay for all of the above.
In some regions, you have the RIGHT to have yourself and your family massacred by child soldiers.
In some OTHER regions, you have the RIGHT to be sold to a factory at age 8.
I feel a gutload of Holiness™ coming on.
Quote from: Elder Iptuous on April 04, 2013, 02:39:04 PM
I like this. I've thought for a while now, that the only true natural right is the right to struggle (which seems to be similar to your number 3 and 5), and i like the simplicity in that. but based on number 4, it seems i have to expand my list. i hadn't considered the corollary right to not struggle. although i guess, i could just append ',or not' to the end of my single right.
numbers 1 and 2 seem to be given conditions rather than rights though, no? i mean they don't seem to involve an act of will that could count as exercising a right.
I started the things as "God Given" rights, and under the presupposition of a god, they seemed to be things that were granted more than occurred. When I re-read, I took out the God, but realized that given conditions are the closest thing to "unalienable" possible. (Gravity, air etc. being more like PRIVILEGES when you get down to it.)
As far as #4, I hadn't intended it as a question of "give up". It is a certainty. Regardless of your choices, struggles, or lack thereof, it WILL end.
(IMHO, this is the only implied non-survival based incentive on the list. You can achieve nothing and die, you can be Ozymandias, and things will turn out the same. No immortality, no great book where everything is written forever, no great cosmic judge who will laugh because you can within 15 points on the super-secret esoteric scale of being THE BEST, but didn't. This can be a reason to do nothing, and it is also a reason to do anything - no pressure involved, only what you feel like making of it all.)
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 04, 2013, 03:21:56 PM
I feel a gutload of Holiness™ coming on.
Collected response : In the current environment, those count. Left them out due to the original "God Given" focus, and they are generally cases of humans cooking up bad shit to do to each other for kicks. Read a great short story once about a cloned mine worker who falls into this category. "Jordan's Waterhammer" by Joe Mastroianni
Quote from: Richter on April 04, 2013, 10:30:35 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 04, 2013, 03:21:56 PM
I feel a gutload of Holiness™ coming on.
Collected response : In the current environment, those count. Left them out due to the original "God Given" focus, and they are generally cases of humans cooking up bad shit to do to each other for kicks. Read a great short story once about a cloned mine worker who falls into this category. "Jordan's Waterhammer" by Joe Mastroianni
Oh, okay. I was operating from an Inalienable rights approach, which is slightly different.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 04, 2013, 10:31:41 PM
Quote from: Richter on April 04, 2013, 10:30:35 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on April 04, 2013, 03:21:56 PM
I feel a gutload of Holiness™ coming on.
Collected response : In the current environment, those count. Left them out due to the original "God Given" focus, and they are generally cases of humans cooking up bad shit to do to each other for kicks. Read a great short story once about a cloned mine worker who falls into this category. "Jordan's Waterhammer" by Joe Mastroianni
Oh, okay. I was operating from an Inalienable rights approach, which is slightly different.
Well, I did put that in the title, and am probably screwing up the sentiment by using them interchangeably.
The original ideas was "What do you have at birth that can't actually be taken away without killing you dead?"
In that sense, #6 should be "the right to be done unto by others", which your hit right off.
Quote from: Richter on April 04, 2013, 10:35:55 PM
The original ideas was "What do you have at birth that can't actually be taken away without killing you dead?"
My appendix, all 4 limbs, and my frontal lobes.
I think that's about it.
On a more serious note, yes, you are in fact born with the right to be Done Unto. Most people exercise this right every day.