An alternative view

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FionaK
view post Posted on 4/8/2011, 12:00 by: FionaK





I think that I acknowledge that these are to be achieved through politics something in the nature of a bill of rights: but these are priniciples: they are not policies but yardsticks against which policies would be measured.

They are similar to yours in some ways, because they are, of course, hurrah words too. But there are very significant differences: for example, under my proposals your "othering" of the religious would be illegal, because freedom of belief is part of the "equal worth" provision. It is intrinsic to a human being's dignity that their beliefs be respected. I will acknowledge that I did not spell that out (it was extremely late when I wrote this: and, as I said , I am not actually ready to do this properly). But it is obvioius to me that you cannot meet the "equal worth" proposition if you label a person's beliefs "profoundly harmful"

Similarly with immigrants: you cannot meet that provision if you insist that people adopt a particular culture: because an individual's culture, whatever it may be, is part of his or her identity as a human being and it is of equal worth to that of anyone else.

I had meant to spell that out in an additional sentence or two in that section: because there is a further level of "dignity" and that is the basic dignity which a human being determines for themselves. As I did say elsewhere, but omitted in this post, politics deals with the question of how we share resources. It has no business interfering in anything else much: and that is, I think, implicit in most of the above. So if you wish to pass law relating to how people should use their share of those resources; or what kinds of behaviour they need to display to secure that share, the proposal would be struck down. They get those resources as a right: and it follows you cannot make conditions. A person's religious belief; their "culture", their drug use, etc are all about how they use the resource. And that is for them to determine. The state has no role at all unless it can be shown that the behaviour adversely impacts on the basic share that others get.
 
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19 replies since 4/8/2011, 05:40   486 views
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