The Rights And The Lefts

So...

There are some on the right side of the political spectrum who believe that the courtesies and conveniences that we affectionately label "Human Rights" are authored and prescribed by a magical super-dimensional entity that gave different people a different number of different rights (Thanks, George Carlin). And that this is more than enough reason for these rights to be binding.

Then there are those on the left side of that spectrum who, by the same kind of magical thinking, believe that they are imbued with these rights for nothing more than the selfless act of being born. Now, if these folk were to be born in a non-Western, non-democratic country, we can be sure that they would have been whistling a different tune.

The fact of the matter is... Rights— all of them—are manmade (and womanmade; again, we are not sexist unless absolutely necessary). Each and every one of them is made by us and enforced by us. These rights—at least the current ones—are the culmination of ten thousand years of human civilization, and countless atrocities, injustices, and disputes eventually leading to a better grasp on coexistence. And the journey is far from over.

Our species, as amazing and golly gosh super as it is, is still in its infancy. Crocodiles have been around for about 200 million years—even they haven't seen a full rotation of the Milky Way yet. Sharks have been around since before Saturn had its rings! We humans, inflaters of our own egos, have only been here for about 300,000 years at best. We are babies—drooling, whining babies compared to the rest.

That being said, we have accomplished incredible things in such a short time. Our achievements as a species are nothing to sneeze at, even if 'tis the season. The point being, we are still very, very young—as a species, as a civilization, as a society. We are still learning about ourselves, about each other, and about the pure, unadulterated chaos we find ourselves in. And after some time, we'll eventually work out the kinks and get this societal machine well-oiled and moving forward at a brisk pace.

There are some—psychopaths and Bible-bashers—who would have you believe that if these rights are not given by some ultimately powerful cosmic Stalin, then they can be ignored. Well, just because we can doesn't mean we should. Society hasn't come this far because we continuously argued about whose imaginary friend smacks the hardest and whose gave the best how-to guide in not being a douche. We got here because, for the most part, we agreed to be nice to each other. And that's the kind of magic that works.

When in doubt, just try and remember that famous cat poster... and hang in there.

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