"In essence, what obligates a person to respect the rights of others is his own self-interest. If a person wants to live and be happy, he must recognize and respect the metaphysically given facts of reality (e.g., the fact that everything, including man, has a specific nature), the nature of man (i.e., the kind of being he is), the basic requirements of human life and happiness (e.g., reason, short- and long-term goals, self-esteem), and the social conditions that make peaceful human coexistence possible (e.g., individual rights, freedom, the rule of law). Granted, although this truth is based on observation and logic, it is nevertheless highly abstract; to grasp it one must exert substantial mental effort—and not everyone will choose to exert that effort. But the abstract nature of a truth does not alter its truth. Just as the abstract nature of the principles of physics and biology does not change the fact that those principles are true, so, too, the abstract nature of the principles of morality does not change the fact that these principles are true. Just as driving one’s car off a cliff or failing to treat one’s cancer will have a negative effect on one’s life regardless of whether one understands the principles involved there, so, too, being irrational or violating rights will have a negative effect on one’s life regardless of whether one understands the principles here. Violating rights does not and cannot lead to happiness; it necessarily retards one’s life, leads to unhappiness, and may lead to incarceration or premature death. The evidence of this is all around us: from the “life and happiness” of Bernie Madoff (Wall Street Ponzi-schemer) to that of John Gotti (Mafia “boss”), from the “life and happiness” of Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City bomber) to that of Dillon Klebold and Eric Harris (Columbine murderers), from the “life and happiness” of Bashar al-Assad and Mu‘ammar Gadhafi to that of sundry swindlers and petty thieves who must constantly worry about being caught, who know that they have chosen to survive not as rational producers but as pathetic parasites on such producers, and whose lives and souls are correspondingly damaged. Protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, these are not happy people. But even if rights-violators could fool themselves into believing that they are happy (which they can’t), the fact remains that by violating the rights of others, they thereby relinquish some or all of their own rights; and rights-respecting people and governments morally may deal with them accordingly. (Rand’s views on the nature and need of government and on the proper application of the principle of rights to the various areas of social and political life are a subject for another day. Our concern in this essay is limited to her derivation of and the essential meaning of the principle of rights.) Respecting the rights of others, observed Rand, “is an obligation imposed, not by the state, but by the nature of reality”; it is a matter of “consistency, which, in this case, means the obligation to respect the rights of others, if one wishes one’s own rights to be recognized and protected.” A person cannot rationally claim the protection of a principle that he repudiates in action. . . ."
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 03:55:58 +0000
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