a philosophical take
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:45 pm
that there is much wailing and teeth grinding over the
fact that rights are being included for more and more people.....
in other words, that gays have gained the right to marry and have children
and have other rights that heterosexual couples have...
but this wasn't always true.... that gays had to ''live in the closet''
for most of the last 500 years... but this expansion of rights has
included other groups... women for example... women were considered
to be property, legally considered to be property until the NY married property
act of 1848 and by 1900, every state had passed laws granting married
women the right to keep their own wages and to own property in their own
name....so, within the last two hundred years has women have the rights,
the same rights men have, to have an independence outside of marriage....
This expansion of rights was part of the legacy of the French Revolution....
but the French Revolution was heavily impacted by the Enlightenment.....
without the Enlightenment, we don't have the French Revolution......
and the subsequent expansion of rights for human beings.......
History can be written in many different ways, and one way is the
expansion of rights within history..... for example, in ancient Egypt,
only one person had rights, and that was the Pharoh...
and the history of civilization can be written as the expansion of
rights from the one, the king or the Pharoh to a few, to many (where
we are today) and to all, everyone regardless of who they are,
everyone has equal rights....the expansion of rights from one to all,
is the history of human beings....
for example, the history of voting in America... in which only
wealthy white men who had property and was a certain age, were allowed to
vote...and the right to vote expanded to those without property, again,
white men of a certain age... and that right to vote expanded,
again and again... first to women, then to blacks and minorities...
the history of America can be said to be the history of the expansion of
rights...... but voting rights aren't the only rights possible, as pointed
out, women were considered to be property until the Civil war and thereafter,
and today, the attempt to limit the rights of gays and transexual people,
is just a continuation of the expansion of rights that has been the
case for generations....
The history of human beings can be and perhaps should be written
as a case of the expansion of rights from one, to some to most to all.....
and thus the conservative attempt to limit the rights of gays and trans people
flies in the face of history, in which the expansion of rights have
been a paramount part of human history.....
Now one of the questions that Science Fiction has been grappling with,
has been this question of Robots/androids, are they machines or
are they sentient beings... A good deal of the Star Trek series,
the Next Generation has revolved around this very issue with
its Data problem.... is Data covered by human laws or is Data
covered by property rights? Practically every Star Trek series since
the Next Generation has tried to work out this issue.... Does A.I
have the same political rights as I do? The expansion of rights,
continue on into our future.... and it will continue to write
our history as the expansion of rights has written the last
200 years of political, social, legal, economic and philosophical
history....and it will continue to do so......
Kropotkin
fact that rights are being included for more and more people.....
in other words, that gays have gained the right to marry and have children
and have other rights that heterosexual couples have...
but this wasn't always true.... that gays had to ''live in the closet''
for most of the last 500 years... but this expansion of rights has
included other groups... women for example... women were considered
to be property, legally considered to be property until the NY married property
act of 1848 and by 1900, every state had passed laws granting married
women the right to keep their own wages and to own property in their own
name....so, within the last two hundred years has women have the rights,
the same rights men have, to have an independence outside of marriage....
This expansion of rights was part of the legacy of the French Revolution....
but the French Revolution was heavily impacted by the Enlightenment.....
without the Enlightenment, we don't have the French Revolution......
and the subsequent expansion of rights for human beings.......
History can be written in many different ways, and one way is the
expansion of rights within history..... for example, in ancient Egypt,
only one person had rights, and that was the Pharoh...
and the history of civilization can be written as the expansion of
rights from the one, the king or the Pharoh to a few, to many (where
we are today) and to all, everyone regardless of who they are,
everyone has equal rights....the expansion of rights from one to all,
is the history of human beings....
for example, the history of voting in America... in which only
wealthy white men who had property and was a certain age, were allowed to
vote...and the right to vote expanded to those without property, again,
white men of a certain age... and that right to vote expanded,
again and again... first to women, then to blacks and minorities...
the history of America can be said to be the history of the expansion of
rights...... but voting rights aren't the only rights possible, as pointed
out, women were considered to be property until the Civil war and thereafter,
and today, the attempt to limit the rights of gays and transexual people,
is just a continuation of the expansion of rights that has been the
case for generations....
The history of human beings can be and perhaps should be written
as a case of the expansion of rights from one, to some to most to all.....
and thus the conservative attempt to limit the rights of gays and trans people
flies in the face of history, in which the expansion of rights have
been a paramount part of human history.....
Now one of the questions that Science Fiction has been grappling with,
has been this question of Robots/androids, are they machines or
are they sentient beings... A good deal of the Star Trek series,
the Next Generation has revolved around this very issue with
its Data problem.... is Data covered by human laws or is Data
covered by property rights? Practically every Star Trek series since
the Next Generation has tried to work out this issue.... Does A.I
have the same political rights as I do? The expansion of rights,
continue on into our future.... and it will continue to write
our history as the expansion of rights has written the last
200 years of political, social, legal, economic and philosophical
history....and it will continue to do so......
Kropotkin