"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
source: YouTube
That's the best known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. Any thinking person understands that there's no such thing as "unalienable rights," as rights are made by humans for humans, and rights don not exist in any other part of nature. We're special like that, as no other species of social animals has evolved enough to make societies quite as sophisticated and complex as homo sapiens. And as individuals we're endowed with the rights granted to us by the society of fellow human beings that has adopted us. We recognize that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." That quote is from article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the way.
So we've decided that everyone has the right to live. One would think that goes without saying, but we feel so strongly about that right, that we write it down and formalize it in many different documents. Still, we live in a world where not everyone seems to really have that right at all, where some people and some groups of people are more entitled to the right to life than others. Of course access to nutritional food is one of the most important preconditions for this right to have any meaning at all, and if there's one place on earth where such access should be guaranteed, it's in the richest country; America. But it isn't. I knew that already, but I had no idea how bad the problem of food insecurity actually is. I was quite unpleasantly surprised to learn that only 85.4 percent of American households enjoy food security.
That means 14.6 percent of households suffer from food insecurity! In total, 49.1 million American citizens live in food insecure households, and 21 percent of all households have children with food insecurity. I was made aware of these numbers by watching the below linked video, in which Vaush comments on remarks made by conservative mega-star Jordan Peterson. First thing that comes to my mind is that conservatives are willing to fight for the right to life, but only when that life isn't born yet. They'll fight for unborn lifes by opposing women's abortion rights, but they'll then oppose any measures that could make the lifes of those children better when they've left the womb. Also mentioned in the video is the fact that there was a vote in the Third Committee of the United Nations over a draft resolution called "The right to food." There were 180 votes in favor and only two against; Israel and the United States.
How, I ask you, can you swear by the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," and at the same time be opposed to nutritional food and drinking water being a basic human rights? Well, that's simple actually;
Most scholars today believe that Jefferson derived the most famous ideas in the Declaration of Independence from the writings of English philosopher John Locke. Locke wrote his Second Treatise of Government in 1689 at the time of England's Glorious Revolution, which overthrew the rule of James II.
Locke wrote that all individuals are equal in the sense that they are born with certain "inalienable" natural rights. That is, rights that are God-given and can never be taken or even given away. Among these fundamental natural rights, Locke said, are "life, liberty, and property."
source: Constitutional Rights Foundation
The original natural rights as defined in John Locke's writings were "life, liberty and property," including ownership of one's self. Again, in my opinion "natural rights" don't exist and the idea of "owning one's self" strikes me as unnatural. I don't own myself. No one owns me, and that's including myself. I simply am myself, ownership doesn't enter that picture at all. But because these libertarian types do think in terms of ownership, and because the foundation of capitalist free market economies is private property, everything has to become a commodity. And their wish is granted, everything is indeed a commodity; even the air we breathe is traded now between factories as they exchange pollution-rights among themselves. And yes, we have become commodities as well: as our information is gathered and traded, we have become products ourselves, our consent and discontent manufactured and exploited.
But this post is about the right to life and food; there are no such rights. Food is a right or a commodity; it can't be both as long as there's poverty and scores of people can't afford the food they need to survive. Don't get this wrong; very few people die of starvation in America, but in the richest country on the planet that's just not good enough. And Jordan Peterson has some very weird and wrong things to say on this subject. It's a little known fact that while women contribute more than 50 percent of the food produced worldwide, they account for 70 percent of the world's hungry; that's from that United Nations vote I mentioned, which you can read about here. Women make most of the food, and are the most hungry, workers create most of the wealth and are the poorest; that's the kind of contradiction people like Peterson love to explain away with meaningless words about "natural hierarchies" and lobsters... Just watch the video...
Jordan Peterson Makes An Elitist FOOL Of Himself On Joe Rogan
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!
Recent articles you might be interested in:
| Latest article >>>>>>>>>>> | Irrational Economy |
|---|---|
| CBDC Reset | Bored Apecalypse |
| Immoral Society | Is Charity Good? |
| Quantum Consciousness? (repost) | Play To Earn Nightmare |
Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas.