Lesson 6: Individual Rights and the State
Objective rights (part 1)
I have explained what rights are. It is now time to examine what rights there are.
As for ethics, our most important goal is volitional life. This implies that the fundamental right, that which gives us freedom, is the right of life (which I also call self-ownership, as a more precise term). The right of life is the principle that one's body and actions are inviolate : that is, that we have the freedom to do what we want with our bodies. This is the fundamental right from which all others are derived.
The main benefit of the right of life, in a rational society, is the support, furtherance and enjoyment of one's life. If one is free to exist and act, one is necessarily free to work, think, play, communicate, love, and all the other things which further life.
This fundamental right implies all other rights. The most important of these corollaries is the right of property. The right of property is a consequence of free action, since owning something is a type of action. Therefore one may own.
If one is not free to own, then one has no freedom. If the government owns the land, then it controls the person who inhabits it. If the government owns all communication resources, then it controls our associations with other people.
On the other hand, if the government controls our actions and outlaws entire categories of actions, then we cannot be free in trading the derivates of those actions (for example, outlawing drugs has effectively given drug trade to criminals).
This is why trying to dissociate self-ownership and free action (civil liberties) from free trade and free property (capitalism) is futile and ultimately self-destructive : without one, the other cannot exist. They are all consequences of the right of life.
Another right is the right of free speech - the freedom to express our ideas. It is derived from the fact that we can own communication means (property) and can use them (action).
For more reading on these rights, see Capitalism : The Unknown Ideal on pages 324 and 325.
I have said that a right represents a freedom. Let me clarify how to apply rights.
The basic principle here is that : our rights stop where the others' begin.
Another way to express this is :
Rights are negative (i.e. they prevent others from doing thing), not positive (i.e. they do not guarantee you to something). A right of something is not a right to something.
In Capitalism : The Unknown Ideal p325, Rand explains how this applies to each right. Keep the two principles we have just seen in mind while reading these descriptions :
The right to life means that a man has the right to support his life by his own work (...); it does not mean that others must provide him with the necessities of life.The right to property means that a man has the right to take the economic actions necessary to earn property, to use it and to dispose it, it does not mean that others must provide him with property.
The right of free speech means that a man has the right to express his ideas without danger of suppression, interference or punitive action by the government. It does not mean that others must provide him with a lecture hall, a radio station or a printing press through which to express his ideas.
