Truths to be self-evident ... unalienable rights [LWN.net]

Truths to be self-evident ... unalienable rights

Posted Dec 9, 2005 9:58 UTC (Fri) by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256)
In reply to: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario by bk
Parent article: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

One observation I like to make when discussions of the U.S. Constitution are bandies about.

People speak far too often of the U.S. Constitution as "granting" certain rights. However, it's wise to read more this in the context of some words from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence:

Therein they describe certain truths as "self-evident" and certain rights as "unalienable."

In that context it seems self-evident that the framers of the constitution intended the Bill of Rights to be an enumeration of "unalienable" rights.

In other words this document should not be taken as "GRANTING" these rights. Rather they RECOGNIZED.

Of course this is a nitpick.

The Constitution is a flawed document. However, in practice it's alot better then what we've been using.

There have been numerous periods where the Bill of Rights have been trampled ... starting perhaps with the Sedition Act of 1798 (less than a decade after the U.S. Constitution took effect).

I'm no historian. However, I've read a bit and listened to those who've read alot more.

We seem to be slipping inexorably towards the sort of corporate totalitarianism that characterized the coal mining "company towns" that play such a significant and bloody role in the history of the labor movement.

This is relevant to LWN because computing devices are increasingly pervasive and necessary to modern life and there is a concerted effort to make them more capable of enforcing policies of a small number of conglomerates. The recent Sony DRM fiasco is one another little blip (not truly the beginning of this) along an alarming trend.

Jim

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Truths to be self-evident ... unalienable rights

Posted Dec 9, 2005 14:50 UTC (Fri) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

Mindful that LWN is read internationally, and most of this has little if
anything to do with Linux or FLOSS directly, but unable to resist, I'll
comment, but keep it short (for me)...

Note that the US Declaration of Independence, while a noble document
(those with an interest in psychology will note that it's one of the few
documents existing at stage 5, with a few stage 6 arguments, of the
Kohlberg moral ladder, while most legal documents remain at stage 4, by
definition of the stage as a society/legal orientation, Martin Luther
King, Jr.'s "I have a Dream" speech being one of the few examples of a
full length public stage-6 document), does not obtain
the force of law in the US. Rather, it's only force of law is as
implemented in the US Constitution, which can be seen as the practical
document legally implementing the ideals of the Declaration of
Independence. Unfortunately but arguably practically, the US Constitution
falls short of the ideals of the US Declaration of Independence, without
the lofty references to "pursuit of happiness", for instance, and with the
references to life and liberty considerably toned down -- not quite so
"inalienable" after all, in practice, tho they are still considered
"rights" and their removal must be for cause and after due process.

I remember how disappointed I was upon finding this out... It's certainly
not the simplistic view many of us were taught (indoctrinated with?) early
in our educational life.

Perhaps, if there are those interested in further discussion, someone will
reply with a link to a more appropriate forum, some list, other web forum,
or (preferred for me) perhaps a newsgroup.

Duncan