Comments on: Are Human Rights Fundamental to Democracy? – Richard Harries

By: blogbat

blogbat — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

Human rights without democracy is a practical impossibility, because as we know, absolute power corrupts absolutely. If either the majority or minority of ethnicity or ideology holds absolute power over the other, then human rights will be its first victim.

By: joebobfrank666

joebobfrank666 — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

3:23 “Vagil information” eh?

By: MarmaladeINFP

MarmaladeINFP — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

1. I didn’t say I’m a proponent of democracy, but I am a proponent of democratic values. The two go together sometimes but sometimes not.
2. Greece & Rome were based on slavery. Their democracies were plutocracies that gave more power to the wealthy elite.
3. You’re arguing that plutocracy is the correct basis of democracy. If so, this is where democracy & democratic values diverge.
4. I was trying not to be absurd, but it seemed necessary to respond back in kind.

By: MarmaladeINFP

MarmaladeINFP — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

1. Why does the “powerful elite” need to protect itself from the majority? I don’t know. Ask the powerful elite why they do this.
2. All civil rights began with populist movements. Elites make civil rights laws when threatened by angry mobs. For example, one early workers union allowed blacks and women to have positions within their organization.
3. There are rich politicians & rich capitalists which represent the powerful elite.
4. Corporatocracy is to blame which is big gov & big business.

By: MarmaladeINFP

MarmaladeINFP — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

Western civilization has sustained itself by continuously destroying the environment and other cultures for centuries. We’re running out of environments and cultures to destroy. Since civilization began, huge numbers of species have gone extinct, whole ecosystems stopped functioning, and many cultures have been destroyed often intentionally through genocidal actions. Technology can’t bring back extinct species, destroyed ecosystems, and annihalated cultures.

By: WarVideo

WarVideo — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

@greenhell666

how?

By: SmilingSkeptic

SmilingSkeptic — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

How about the protection of little boys from their pedophile priests? Is that a human right? Who has the church historically moved to protect in those cases?

By: paganiniGOGO

paganiniGOGO — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

I said many were slave owners. Their personal opinions on whether slavery should be legal is somewhat (not completely though) irrelevant. No matter how much we deify them this hideous fact will always be true.

By: Mastikator

Mastikator — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

I thought the essence of democracy was majority rule over government (and over society by proxy of government). It’s better than dictatorship, but when society is prejudiced against a minority then democracy is not a big improvement.
However, democracy in that sense of the people having the power doesn’t exist, since the people only get to choose from representatives that the ruling class picked out. It’s still a form of oligarchy in reality.

By: Mastikator

Mastikator — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:58:14 +0000

He’s not talking about that. He’s just saying that human rights always trump “the greater good” and democracy.

I most certainly agree. You don’t sacrifice an individual for the well being of the collective. Nobody in the collective has the right to do so.