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Authored by: PJ on Wednesday, December 19 2012 @ 03:30 PM EST |
Well, for context, keep in mind that the Founding
Fathers, as they are called, came from Europe, where
they had been persecuted by governments for various
things like having the "wrong" religion, and for
sure the entire setup of the new country was
influenced strongly to protect the individual
against the overwhelming power of the state.
You can criticize, but I think there are countries
that would have benefitted from similar perspectives
and protections. We recently saw many of them at
work at the ITU conference, did we not? China even
argued that the government has rights too, not just
people as individuals, in the discussion on human
rights. That was their objection.
The US view from day one was that individuals have
rights that are inalienable -- meaning governments
don't give them to you and they have no right to
take them away. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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