Another reminder to myself: The following teleological story is told by T. H. Marshall:
- In the eighteenth century, the British obtained civil rights (e.g., free speech, freedom of religion)
- In the nineteenth century, they acquired political rights (e.g., the right to vote)
- The twentieth century is about the struggle for social rights (e.g., the right to be able to use your talents and skills to provide for yourself and your family, also known as, the right to a job)
The original source for this story is:
- T. H. Marshall (1950). Citzenship and Social Class, Cambridge University Press.
And, in the future, why not sexual rights?
ReplyDeleteBy which I mean, of course, the right to be able to use your genitalia to provide for yourself relief, also known as the right to a sex slave.
I guess the above is Gabriel's odd way of thanking me for bringing T. H. Marshall to his attention, who he has apparently never heard of.
ReplyDelete"the right to be able to use your genitalia to provide for yourself relief"
ReplyDeleteI think you will discover you already have that right. It is called wanking.
And sexual rights have progressed. Women are not longer considered the property of her husband and can even keep their own name, rape in marriage is now considered as a crime (rather than the right of the husband), and so forth.
All thanks to feminism and women standing up for their freedom within associations. Now, we need a similar perspective to develop within the workplace so we can replace hierarchical social relationships with co-operative ones.
I know that anarchists and other socialists have arguing that since the early nineteenth century, but economic freedom cannot be denied indefinitely.
Iain
How about just "The Right to a Pony"?
ReplyDeleteI consider YouNotSneaky's comment to be uninformed harassment. My mere pointer to an influential idea doesn't require this sort of reaction.
ReplyDeleteIn some sense, every country in the world has already signed on to social rights, as in Articles 23, 24, 25, and 27, at least, of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.
I agree with Iain that feminism has made great strides in advancing sexual rights. Sexual rights can be looked at to include more. I suspect there are Romanian organizations, too.
Iain,
ReplyDeleteby that standard anyone can exert his right to work by... doing it by himself, in his home? Just don't expect any pay.
Robert,
Yes, you are a great source of new material, on many topics. (No joke!)
But these ideas are nothing new. It's the entitlement society. We're all entitled to stuff.
Re: feminism, there are socialist feminists and libertarian feminists and everything in between.
As NotSneaky pointed out, the right to the safety of one's body (no rape in the home) doesn't imply the "right" to a free pony.
If someone is to receive (a job, pony, etc.) then someone is either to produce it or give it or be expropriated.
I do remember with fondness that Denmark parliamentary's proposal to tax men (for having penises, I suppose). It's no worse than taxing height, on the other hand.