![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unusualmusic_lj_archiveFrom the Ohm Project
The Ohm Declaration
Saturday, 08 March 2008
Again and again through the course of human history it has become necessary to declare that which is instinctive to every man and woman who draws breath--that human beings possess certain fundamental and inalienable rights. Repeating these truths in the language of each generation is required because tyrants and tyrannical institutions are forever seeking to bury these rights so that they can pursue wealth and power unfettered by the troublesome limitations imposed by a respect for the individual.
In this 21st century, the greedy and the power-hungry again seek to subordinate the rights of human beings. This era's incarnations of Pharaoh and King are especially perverse compared to their predecessors because they employ the very language of rights and freedom as an excuse to advance their authoritarian cause.
So acknowledging our heavy debt to our predecessors, we make a declaration of the human rights that we insist survive and persist even until this day. We make no particular claims as to the source of these rights. Some will find a divine origin for them. Others will see them as a natural product of human evolution and civilization. We see no need to go further than to invite every person to ask of him- or herself whether they feel in their heart and acknowledge in their mind that they were born to be nothing more than slaves whose lives depend upon the whim of the powerful. If the answer to that question is "no," then we offer this list of 21st century rights as a starting point for discussion.
1. Human beings are free to do everything which injures no one else.
This bold statement is not new but is taken from the Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted by the French Assemby in 1789. It constitutes the fundamental presumption that underlies all other rights and seeks to strike a balance between the autonomy of the individual and the fact that, as social beings, consideration must be taken for the impact of our actions on others.
2. Human beings are free to express themselves, especially on matters of public interest.
Without this right, all others are in jeopardy.
3. Human beings are free to engage or not engage in religious activity.
The religious impulse of our species is widespread, but no single one of its many manifestations has authority to impose its point of view on anyone else, nor can the religious demand a profession of faith from the non-religious.
4. Human beings are free to associate with one another.
We are social and sexual beings who desire relationships with our fellow humans. No ruler or institution can prevent voluntary associations nor interfere with them as long as no harm is done.
5. Human beings are free to maintain their privacy.
All of us seek a private space for ourselves and our families into which no one can enter without invitation. This private space can exist in three dimensions, as manifested by our homes, or be essentially dimensionless as exists in our right to choose whether to disclose or not disclose information about ourselves.
6. Human beings are free to travel.
Our instinctive desire to travel has been the cause of our dispersal from the heart of Africa across towering mountains and vast oceans until we occupy the entire planet. To use national boundaries, the mere creation of human beings, to suppress this basic right, is absurd.
7. Human beings are free to resist oppression.
It is not the resisters but the tyrants who are the real lawbreakers in human society, and people have a right, even a duty, to engage in non-violent resistance against those who would deny them their fundamental rights.
The Ohm Declaration
Saturday, 08 March 2008
Again and again through the course of human history it has become necessary to declare that which is instinctive to every man and woman who draws breath--that human beings possess certain fundamental and inalienable rights. Repeating these truths in the language of each generation is required because tyrants and tyrannical institutions are forever seeking to bury these rights so that they can pursue wealth and power unfettered by the troublesome limitations imposed by a respect for the individual.
In this 21st century, the greedy and the power-hungry again seek to subordinate the rights of human beings. This era's incarnations of Pharaoh and King are especially perverse compared to their predecessors because they employ the very language of rights and freedom as an excuse to advance their authoritarian cause.
So acknowledging our heavy debt to our predecessors, we make a declaration of the human rights that we insist survive and persist even until this day. We make no particular claims as to the source of these rights. Some will find a divine origin for them. Others will see them as a natural product of human evolution and civilization. We see no need to go further than to invite every person to ask of him- or herself whether they feel in their heart and acknowledge in their mind that they were born to be nothing more than slaves whose lives depend upon the whim of the powerful. If the answer to that question is "no," then we offer this list of 21st century rights as a starting point for discussion.
1. Human beings are free to do everything which injures no one else.
This bold statement is not new but is taken from the Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted by the French Assemby in 1789. It constitutes the fundamental presumption that underlies all other rights and seeks to strike a balance between the autonomy of the individual and the fact that, as social beings, consideration must be taken for the impact of our actions on others.
2. Human beings are free to express themselves, especially on matters of public interest.
Without this right, all others are in jeopardy.
3. Human beings are free to engage or not engage in religious activity.
The religious impulse of our species is widespread, but no single one of its many manifestations has authority to impose its point of view on anyone else, nor can the religious demand a profession of faith from the non-religious.
4. Human beings are free to associate with one another.
We are social and sexual beings who desire relationships with our fellow humans. No ruler or institution can prevent voluntary associations nor interfere with them as long as no harm is done.
5. Human beings are free to maintain their privacy.
All of us seek a private space for ourselves and our families into which no one can enter without invitation. This private space can exist in three dimensions, as manifested by our homes, or be essentially dimensionless as exists in our right to choose whether to disclose or not disclose information about ourselves.
6. Human beings are free to travel.
Our instinctive desire to travel has been the cause of our dispersal from the heart of Africa across towering mountains and vast oceans until we occupy the entire planet. To use national boundaries, the mere creation of human beings, to suppress this basic right, is absurd.
7. Human beings are free to resist oppression.
It is not the resisters but the tyrants who are the real lawbreakers in human society, and people have a right, even a duty, to engage in non-violent resistance against those who would deny them their fundamental rights.
