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To: livianne
The reason there is a value in individual rights is because enough individuals say there is.

If you truly hold this to be true, then the reverse is also true: The reason there is a lack of value in individual rights is because enough individuals say there is. If majority rules--or if a quorum says so--and if that is the only basis of authority you can muster, then the lack of value in say, individual Jewish rights in 1930s and 1940s Germany/Europe was because there were enough Germans/Europeans who said there was.

I'm sorry, but the Nazis proved your worldview to be bankrupt.

381 posted on 06/17/2004 7:15:57 PM PDT by Colofornian (Now do you see why we have inalieble rights--in others endowed by our Creator (sourced beyond us)?)
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To: Colofornian
I'm sorry, but the Nazis proved your worldview to be bankrupt.

au contraire, you prove my point exactly. be it right or wrong, when enough Germans agreed that Jews did not have rights, it became true that in that society the value of the individual rights of Jews disappeared. When enough people in the rest of the world decided this was unacceptable, the camps were liberated, Jews were freed and had rights returned to them by people who did see the value in their individual rights. I didn't assign a moral good or evil nature to the fact that the value of individual rights in a society comes from majority rule - it's just a fact.

Had these teachers frequented a sex party and had wanton sex with various men and the community had found out, I wager that enough of the society would agree that the teachers' individual rights to enjoy adult activities were no longer as urgent as the right of the group of parents to decide who teachers their children. Then and only then would the teacher be removed, as the will of the larger group would be imposed. But if the teachers had gone to an R rated movie and one person felt that warranted their removal, the teachers rights to their own lives outside school would well outweigh that one person's complaint, and the teachers would be left alone. We've yet to see how this falls in this community, but the fact remains that only the group reaction of the community can decide what value they place on the individual rights of the teachers to enjoy this entertainment over their right to choose qualities in those that teach their children.

393 posted on 06/17/2004 7:46:29 PM PDT by livianne
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