| The Fallacy of "Life, Liberty, and Property"
Let go of the misconception that you have any natural rights. There are no natural rights, there is merely the ability (and inability) to obtain and maintain a particular object or state of being. The word "right" indicates something that others are obligated to respect, however in the natural world, there are no inherent obligations--there is only survival.
There is no right to life, but merely the ability to maintain life through sustenance and personal defense. In nature, life consumes life, and no creature has no more right to live than any other, no animal anymore right to life than any plant. However, many individuals have more "ability to live;" they are better suited to survival; what Darwin deemed "survival of the fit."
There is no right to liberty, but merely the ability to obtain and maintain liberty. In the natural world, nothing is inherently free, and no creature is inherently obligated to observe the liberty of any other.
There is no right to property, but merely the ability to obtain and maintain property. A person cannot own land, because ownership suggests that others must recognize and respect the owner's right to own whatever it is that is claimed to be owned. A person can claim land, and endeavor to keep it by whatever means necessary and available. All the inhabitable land in the world is claimed by people who actually believe that they own it, that they actually have some entitlement to it. The truth is, they merely possess the land (actually, since landowners will loose land if they do not pay property taxes, they are more land-renters than landowners). Landownership is only as valid as the paper the land deeds are written on.
To say this is mine or that is mine is false, because nothing is inherently owned. It would be more correct to say I possess this or I possess that (possession is not ownership). Just because you possess something, even if you make it yourself, does not mean that you are now naturally entitled to it, meaning that others must recognize and respect your entitlement. |