<<Actually, I have been thinking about this one for some time.. I am a
psychology student, and my psych professor recently gave us a lecture on
what he called the 16 international civil rights. his argument was that
we, as humans, are born with "inalienable" civil rights... my argument
was (being psychology) that rights were originally created by mass human
insecurity, i.e. we all are scared of dying, hence the old saying "Thou
shalt not kill". and the more modern rendition "right to life", "thou
shalt not steal", mod. "right to property", etc.... a nice self
justifying meme (ties into religion)...
>
>Maybe rights are a specific archetype of meme? maybe one that ties in
closely with laws and ordered society? part of this stems from our
egocentric personalities, part of as is explained in the hinsight bias
theories ("i knew it all along"), but maybe it is more.. i dunno.. i'm
still learning..>>
first: get over your uncertainties. and you couldnt write all that if you didnt know anything at all ;-)
all people dont have rights... there are still countries that oppress
(subjective). perhaps your professor should concider restating it: "i
think all people 'deserve' rights" because two things are for sure: not
all people have rights, not all people think that everyone deserves the
same rights he refers to.
~the great tinkerer