(no subject)
Feb. 16th, 2004 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bzarcherOkay, I know I pissed someone off with this today, but I feel like I need to make something clear so I avoid it in the future.
Life is not fair, and I do not feel anyone is entitled to it being so. Most people who are reading this have been fortunate that through force of arms or force of law, we have been given many privileges and freedoms. But that does not mean that those rights did not have to be earned by someone, be it Colonial Soldiers 200 years ago, the NAACP/SCLC/SNCC, U.S. troops, or international laws and conventions based on English Common Law and the solicitors and barristers who worked to form them.
There is no such thing as a right to anything. Human beings are 'entitled' to exactly one thing: death. If you have been given the gift of life and your mother chose to bring you to term, you will eventually get a free death at some point, regardless of who you are and what you have or have not done. Everything else is going to be earned through hard work.
In some cases, people will help you. (In many cases, in fact.) But that does not mean we can claim that we deserve things, that we should be given things, or that we have a right to things and automatically expect to recieve. All too often you're going to have to fight for it, and you're going to have to fight hard.
Does this mean we should give up searching for things like equality, fair treatment, or various benefits and comforts? Absolutely not. They are good things to have, and in many cases our society could stand to be a bit more permissive, a bit more ecumenical. A level playing field is not a bad thing. But it is not easy, it often doesn't happen, and if a lot of the things people currently agitate for happen in my lifetime, I will be surprised.
I don't want you to feel I don't care. I do. But the above is who I am, and I tend to apply that to a lot of things that you and I will probably disagree about frequently, and if that pisses you off, I really am sorry. I don't like pissing my friends off. But it's gonna happen now and then.
Life is not fair, and I do not feel anyone is entitled to it being so. Most people who are reading this have been fortunate that through force of arms or force of law, we have been given many privileges and freedoms. But that does not mean that those rights did not have to be earned by someone, be it Colonial Soldiers 200 years ago, the NAACP/SCLC/SNCC, U.S. troops, or international laws and conventions based on English Common Law and the solicitors and barristers who worked to form them.
There is no such thing as a right to anything. Human beings are 'entitled' to exactly one thing: death. If you have been given the gift of life and your mother chose to bring you to term, you will eventually get a free death at some point, regardless of who you are and what you have or have not done. Everything else is going to be earned through hard work.
In some cases, people will help you. (In many cases, in fact.) But that does not mean we can claim that we deserve things, that we should be given things, or that we have a right to things and automatically expect to recieve. All too often you're going to have to fight for it, and you're going to have to fight hard.
Does this mean we should give up searching for things like equality, fair treatment, or various benefits and comforts? Absolutely not. They are good things to have, and in many cases our society could stand to be a bit more permissive, a bit more ecumenical. A level playing field is not a bad thing. But it is not easy, it often doesn't happen, and if a lot of the things people currently agitate for happen in my lifetime, I will be surprised.
I don't want you to feel I don't care. I do. But the above is who I am, and I tend to apply that to a lot of things that you and I will probably disagree about frequently, and if that pisses you off, I really am sorry. I don't like pissing my friends off. But it's gonna happen now and then.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 10:37 am (UTC)In other words, I don't care one way or another. I'm not gay, so this all doesn't really relate to me. If they want it, give it to 'em, I says.
In the meantime, feel free to join me in my corner. I have both cherry and apple pie.