mardi, février 01, 2011

A nation of "rights": Huffington Post rant

After the Tucson shootings, I wondered if we would ask ourselves some hard questions about what happens when the individualistic ethos of our nation seems to, well, run amok.

In the eighteenth-century the idea of individual rights may have been just the thing for a new nation, which wanted to set itself apart from the tyrannies of kings. But the idea of rights doesn't work so well when your "rights" infringe upon the vulnerable, or my safety.

What should, what could supplement or even replace our "rights-base" culture? Feel free to comment.