RIGHTS S.
This is not to say that negative rights are always wonderful or ought to be unlimited in scope. You have the right to stand on a street corner and say, “I’m a Nazi pig!” Whether you have the right to stand on a street corner and say to passersby, “ You’re a Nazi pig!” is a more complex question. And if you stand on a street corner with a bullhorn and yell, “YOU’RE A NAZI PIG!” in the middle of the night, the police should come and negate your negative rights. Nor are positive rights evil. Free public primary and secondary schools are a benefit to society. (Although vouchers for private school tuition might be more beneficial.) And I’m in favor of college degrees that are at least reasonably priced. (I got government help paying for school... And not because of academic merit. The government’s attitude in my day was, “America needs mediocre students, too.”) I believe America should have a medical system that guarantees everyone treatment without bankruptcy from hospital bills. (Nobody should lose the house. The boat? Maybe. But not the house.) And decent pay for every job ($12 an hour for congressmen) is a worthy goal even if I think an expanding economy is more likely than a law to provide generous paychecks without driving people into the labor black market. (Congressmen getting paid under the table – except that seems to be happening already.) But are these “rights”? It’s the right question
to ask. Idealists should ask it. They’d be better off changing their terminology. Idealism ought to be expressed as moral obligation, not political cant. This particular respecter of negative rights is more likely to be moved by “Please” than “You’re a Nazi pig.” When liberals, progressives, and so-called “democratic socialists” quit demanding rights and begin invoking duties – our society’s duty to fund education, provide health care, and pay living wages even to congressmen – then I’ll start listening. Why Do We Call Rights ‘Negative’ and ‘Positive’?
Part of the confusion between the two types of rights comes from their bassackwards names. Negative rights produce mostly positive effects while positive rights can have negative consequences. Blame the nomenclature on Russian-born philosopher, political theorist, and Oxford professor ISAIAH BERLIN (1909-1997). He coined the terms “negative freedom” and “positive freedom” to describe how our desire to have a political system that (negatively) provides us with liberty clashes with our desire to have a political system that (positively) provides us with stuff. Berlin was a great champion of “negative freedom,” but he was not a native English-speaker. – P.J. O’R.
American Consequences
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