Reading today about William the Conquerer, I came upon a quote from a contemporary who remarked,
As men spake more of right law, so men did more unlaw.
Indeed, this is how law functions today. People look for creative excuses for the "right" to things which properly speaking, aren't rights at all. Real rights come from our relationships with others. I defend the people with whom I live. My children have a right to be housed and fed, not because of some abstraction, but because they are my children. My parents have the right to live comfortably in old age because I owe it to them.
This is worlds away from the "rights" language of today. I have a right to abort my baby. I have a right to live as a libertine. What relationship gives one such a right? These aren't rights at all- - they are statements of legal permission.
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