Unfairness and rights
David Gould says 'the first message of the Buddha is that life is completely unfai... to invent some conceptual justification for fair treatment such as human rights is ... wishful thinking'.
I'm not sure the first noble truth can be seen as 'life is unfair', rather 'life is frequently not as we want it'. But perhaps that does not address the real point.
To talk of human rights is to remind people of an obligation to respect other humans, in a variety of ways. It is of course true that people frequently neglect this obligation: thus //dukkha// ('not to get your rights respected is //dukkha//, as the first noble truth might say). But the obligation remains.
On Wed, 4 Oct 1995, peter.harvey wrote:
>David Gould says 'the first message of the Buddha is that life is completely unfai... to invent some conceptual justification for fair
>To talk of human rights is to remind people of an obligation to respect other humans, in a variety of ways. It is of course true that people frequently neglect this obligation: thus //dukkha// ('not to get your rights respected is //dukkha//, as the first noble truth might say). But the obligation remains.
Who or what obliges?
I think the answer is it is only we who oblige ourselves when we understand the consequences of actions.
Following this argument, human rights will suceed only when *individuals* see these as beneficial, and the benefit of an action will differ depending upon the conditions of each situation.
dgould@aix1.uottawa.ca