Another excellent - and forensic - essay. A broad brush comment:
The word 'rights' has come, in our age of hyper-'liberalism', to be as unquestionable as 'goodness' or 'peace'. But the whole 'Rights' concept needs interrogating in terms of whether it entrenches any Good that could not be equally well served by the concept of Responsibilities. For example a responsibility not to bully your fellow man would obviate the need for all the anti xyzims across the board. So what is the human 'Rights' concept really about? It's about imposing burdens on The State (or Superstate) in order to absolve the individual citizen of personal Responsibility. Or rather to Minimise that responsibility. It is, in other words, an inherently wrong road down which Western Liberalism has travelled.
I look forward to reading David’s essay on the philosophical origins of ‘human rights’.
As for me, I have concluded that there is no such thing as a human right and never has been. A right has to be granted and if it is a right granted to humans, then something/someone other than a human must have been responsible for having granted it. Those of a religious bent will, of course, be content to aver that the right has been granted by a higher power, a God if you will or, indeed, anything which gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside!
In point of fact, human rights are entitlements which we’ve granted to ourselves, principally in order to create a societal existence in which we, as a collection of disparate individuals, having accepted that life is more comfortable if we pool our individual talents, have also agreed to limit our individual freedoms by installing a system of governance.
In simpler times, those who represented the system of governance, had limited means with which to enforce the ‘rights/entitlememts’ which were, in the main, accepted as fair and reasonable by the electorate. With the ever expanding influence of technology and the total corruption of the concept of wealth and value, the ability to control and exercise power by those who have, either persuaded the electorate of their ability to govern for ‘the greater good’, or have the capability to seize that power, the concept of granting a ‘human right’ is a natural progression. A delusion of a supernatural power, if you will because, in reality, whatever we have come to label as ‘a human right’ is nothing more than a recognition of a duty/responsibility to respect the societal existence we have created.
Humanity has no ‘rights’ to anything. We have duties/responsibilities which are necessary if a societal existence is to continue. No one has given us anything. We have taken those we now assume to be rights and continue to believe that organisations such as the United Nations have ‘the right’ to impose their rules and regulation, in the idiotic belief that they possess the expertise to formulate the future. As with any form of governance, their only reason for existence is to create the impression that they are indispensable and they do so by the installation of fears from which only they can protect us from becoming reality.
Given what's happened and that we have had a Climate Change Act plus Renewables Oblligations for 16 years with our industrialized economy and communities successfully being killed off, it would seem appropriate now to sue the State and the investors in the Energy Transition and all those who actually believe that our carbon dioxide emissions cause climate change - on the grounds that my rights to have cheap energy and to participate in a healthily growing economy are being denied by the aforesaid (definitely guilty) Parties.
Of course power is being moved away from elected representatives, not just to unelected judges/courts, but also to unelected officials. I received the newsletter from my pension scheme today - it included this:
"A new requirement placed on trustees of pension schemes is to report on how the pension scheme is meeting the climate governance requirements in line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)."
This Task Force has apparently disbanded, but the Financial Stability Board (an international quango) has asked the IFRS Foundation (another international quango) to take over the monitoring of companies’ climate-related disclosures.
Says its website: "The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit, public interest organisation established to develop high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards."
Another few quangos, then, this time global ones. And that is another feature of the ongoing replacement of democratic government with "regulation" and "governance" - it is often global and not restricted to any single country.
In this country we have our own quangos taking over the functions of government - examples being NHS England, the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner.
I think we are nearing the point, if we have not reached it already, when our democratic parliament will no longer be able to take back power from these quangos, even should it wish to do so. We are becoming more like the old Soviet Union every day.
"[I]nadequate State action to combat climate change exacerbated the risks of harmful consequences and subsequent threats for the enjoyment of human rights – threats already recognised by governments worldwide. "
...and by the extension of human rights principle the State must take action to ensure I am protected against bad weather - for what is climate but a (moving) rolling average of weather?
King Cnut told to issue people on the foreshore with umbrellas, and to advise them to roll up their trousers?
Another great article David, turned around quickly to give some considered insight. Setting aside the (none) issue of climate change (pushed by the far left) I think you are right that the Communists and Marxists of 60s became dissolutioned with the masses failure to be convinced by their arguments of utopia so they sought different levers to implement them. One largely hidden from the public. As Robert Conquest said in Dragons of Expectations the clever ones moved to the green movement. They quickly learnt that creating a veil of compassion could easily hide the desire to control.
Whenever legislation comes into effect, no matter how well intentioned (often dubious IMO) it always become over 'interpreted' to include issues never imagined. 2 examples; Town and Country Planning Act - meant to facilitate development but now just stops it. Health and Safety at Work Act - recently you may have seen TV footage of a member of the public being rescued in a flood by a member of the public whilst a fireman stood by and watched (calling for backup and undertaking a risk assessment).
The state, and legislation, should be as small as possible and only ever impart negative rights. Leave us alone, we can get on with our lives without the State interfering absolutely everywhere.
The EU all legal routes and all Politics and Media are corrupt and controlled from the Top.
Narratives like this defect from the underlying Truth... where there is no will there is no way.
In 2009 I patented this technology which is a quantum leap in transportation producing water as the only exhaust forever and it spells the end of aviation making it obsolete
I also expose Elon Musk as a Fraud... he took my technology called it the Hyperloop and nobody bothered to look into my technology anymore.... even that my technology is exponentially more capable.
You are a Law professor... If anyone can help it is you.
I lay down the legal case and my full story here in the hope that someone like you who has the power to do something does something... and helps me put the wrongs right.
I keep warning about this-my cracked record persona-but we are steadily moving towards DINO: democracy in name only.
Additionally, for many years now, I have observed the elevation of human rights into an unassailable dogma, while personal responsibilities have been relegated, with the social consequences we now see playing out.
Finally, on climate change, I recommend this film, as in my previous comment:
The science is far from being settled, as the many scientists contributing in this film discuss and the attempts to ban, cancel and denounce every challenge reflect a semi-religious dogma, which brooks no debate.
The ECHR should. never have got involved in this affair and has now arrogated to itself the means to override public dissent and true democratic assent to significant policy change.
History has shown that a politicised ,biased judiciary brings dire consequences: the Nazi Volksgerichtshof, for example and the Soviet courts complicit in the notorious purge trials of the 1930s.
Another excellent - and forensic - essay. A broad brush comment:
The word 'rights' has come, in our age of hyper-'liberalism', to be as unquestionable as 'goodness' or 'peace'. But the whole 'Rights' concept needs interrogating in terms of whether it entrenches any Good that could not be equally well served by the concept of Responsibilities. For example a responsibility not to bully your fellow man would obviate the need for all the anti xyzims across the board. So what is the human 'Rights' concept really about? It's about imposing burdens on The State (or Superstate) in order to absolve the individual citizen of personal Responsibility. Or rather to Minimise that responsibility. It is, in other words, an inherently wrong road down which Western Liberalism has travelled.
I look forward to reading David’s essay on the philosophical origins of ‘human rights’.
As for me, I have concluded that there is no such thing as a human right and never has been. A right has to be granted and if it is a right granted to humans, then something/someone other than a human must have been responsible for having granted it. Those of a religious bent will, of course, be content to aver that the right has been granted by a higher power, a God if you will or, indeed, anything which gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside!
In point of fact, human rights are entitlements which we’ve granted to ourselves, principally in order to create a societal existence in which we, as a collection of disparate individuals, having accepted that life is more comfortable if we pool our individual talents, have also agreed to limit our individual freedoms by installing a system of governance.
In simpler times, those who represented the system of governance, had limited means with which to enforce the ‘rights/entitlememts’ which were, in the main, accepted as fair and reasonable by the electorate. With the ever expanding influence of technology and the total corruption of the concept of wealth and value, the ability to control and exercise power by those who have, either persuaded the electorate of their ability to govern for ‘the greater good’, or have the capability to seize that power, the concept of granting a ‘human right’ is a natural progression. A delusion of a supernatural power, if you will because, in reality, whatever we have come to label as ‘a human right’ is nothing more than a recognition of a duty/responsibility to respect the societal existence we have created.
Humanity has no ‘rights’ to anything. We have duties/responsibilities which are necessary if a societal existence is to continue. No one has given us anything. We have taken those we now assume to be rights and continue to believe that organisations such as the United Nations have ‘the right’ to impose their rules and regulation, in the idiotic belief that they possess the expertise to formulate the future. As with any form of governance, their only reason for existence is to create the impression that they are indispensable and they do so by the installation of fears from which only they can protect us from becoming reality.
Given what's happened and that we have had a Climate Change Act plus Renewables Oblligations for 16 years with our industrialized economy and communities successfully being killed off, it would seem appropriate now to sue the State and the investors in the Energy Transition and all those who actually believe that our carbon dioxide emissions cause climate change - on the grounds that my rights to have cheap energy and to participate in a healthily growing economy are being denied by the aforesaid (definitely guilty) Parties.
Thanks for a really interesting post.
Of course power is being moved away from elected representatives, not just to unelected judges/courts, but also to unelected officials. I received the newsletter from my pension scheme today - it included this:
"A new requirement placed on trustees of pension schemes is to report on how the pension scheme is meeting the climate governance requirements in line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)."
This Task Force has apparently disbanded, but the Financial Stability Board (an international quango) has asked the IFRS Foundation (another international quango) to take over the monitoring of companies’ climate-related disclosures.
Says its website: "The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit, public interest organisation established to develop high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards."
Another few quangos, then, this time global ones. And that is another feature of the ongoing replacement of democratic government with "regulation" and "governance" - it is often global and not restricted to any single country.
In this country we have our own quangos taking over the functions of government - examples being NHS England, the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner.
I think we are nearing the point, if we have not reached it already, when our democratic parliament will no longer be able to take back power from these quangos, even should it wish to do so. We are becoming more like the old Soviet Union every day.
"[I]nadequate State action to combat climate change exacerbated the risks of harmful consequences and subsequent threats for the enjoyment of human rights – threats already recognised by governments worldwide. "
...and by the extension of human rights principle the State must take action to ensure I am protected against bad weather - for what is climate but a (moving) rolling average of weather?
King Cnut told to issue people on the foreshore with umbrellas, and to advise them to roll up their trousers?
Very informative. Thank you.
Another great article David, turned around quickly to give some considered insight. Setting aside the (none) issue of climate change (pushed by the far left) I think you are right that the Communists and Marxists of 60s became dissolutioned with the masses failure to be convinced by their arguments of utopia so they sought different levers to implement them. One largely hidden from the public. As Robert Conquest said in Dragons of Expectations the clever ones moved to the green movement. They quickly learnt that creating a veil of compassion could easily hide the desire to control.
Whenever legislation comes into effect, no matter how well intentioned (often dubious IMO) it always become over 'interpreted' to include issues never imagined. 2 examples; Town and Country Planning Act - meant to facilitate development but now just stops it. Health and Safety at Work Act - recently you may have seen TV footage of a member of the public being rescued in a flood by a member of the public whilst a fireman stood by and watched (calling for backup and undertaking a risk assessment).
The state, and legislation, should be as small as possible and only ever impart negative rights. Leave us alone, we can get on with our lives without the State interfering absolutely everywhere.
The EU all legal routes and all Politics and Media are corrupt and controlled from the Top.
Narratives like this defect from the underlying Truth... where there is no will there is no way.
In 2009 I patented this technology which is a quantum leap in transportation producing water as the only exhaust forever and it spells the end of aviation making it obsolete
https://fritzfreud.substack.com/p/the-invention-the-illuminati-does
Which proves we are being mislead by a shitshow.
I also expose Elon Musk as a Fraud... he took my technology called it the Hyperloop and nobody bothered to look into my technology anymore.... even that my technology is exponentially more capable.
You are a Law professor... If anyone can help it is you.
I lay down the legal case and my full story here in the hope that someone like you who has the power to do something does something... and helps me put the wrongs right.
https://fritzfreud.substack.com/p/suing-richard-branson-and-elon-musk
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/net-zero-rule-law
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/10/international-left-wing-elites-crushing-democracy/
Had to look that up David😁 I'm a civil engineer😄
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/tories-lead-renewed-calls-for-britain-to-leave-european-court-of-human-rights/
I keep warning about this-my cracked record persona-but we are steadily moving towards DINO: democracy in name only.
Additionally, for many years now, I have observed the elevation of human rights into an unassailable dogma, while personal responsibilities have been relegated, with the social consequences we now see playing out.
Finally, on climate change, I recommend this film, as in my previous comment:
https://vimeo.com/924719370?share=copy
The science is far from being settled, as the many scientists contributing in this film discuss and the attempts to ban, cancel and denounce every challenge reflect a semi-religious dogma, which brooks no debate.
The ECHR should. never have got involved in this affair and has now arrogated to itself the means to override public dissent and true democratic assent to significant policy change.
History has shown that a politicised ,biased judiciary brings dire consequences: the Nazi Volksgerichtshof, for example and the Soviet courts complicit in the notorious purge trials of the 1930s.
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/nazi-germany-1933-1945/reich-minister-of-justice-franz-guertner-opens-the-first-session-of-the-people-s-court-july-14-1934
https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Purge