Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Glendon 1 & 2

One of her first examples she gives is Mr. Sokolow’s story. How he fought for his absolute right because it was his castle (a rented castle). It is interesting to me that this absolute notion of rights concerning property has carried over to rented property as well. I am not sure nowadays one could get away with that, probably depends on the lease; but then again even in his contract it said that one could not make disturbing noises. Even though his kids were the one’s making the noise, he was responsible for his kids and I found it very interesting that the judge favored him in the case.

I agree with Ernie, as he has pointed out, that Glendon says that rights talk merely avoids reasonable conversation to come to the best solution. If one is stubborn and feels they have this absolute right to their property, they will fight it until the bitter end. I remember about five years ago, back when I was living in Aberdeen, the state wanted to put in a four lane highway (expressway) from Aberdeen to I-29, about 75 miles. The construction of this road would go through many land owners property (farmland), and the state ended up paying them a lot of money because they fought it until the bitter end. My assumption is that they felt they owned their land and they did not want to give it up, even though it would be better for the whole of society. Obviously this kind of stuff happens all the time, but makes the point Glendon is making.
Another interesting point she makes, a quite good one too, is that no one can be an absolutists for all our constitutional rights. How then, does one chose or can one chose between what they want to be absolutists for? She says “Because taking any one of them as far as it can go soon brings it into conflict with others.” One would think this alone would bring an end to absolutism.

Does it really take a war to make drastic changes? She points out that after both WWII and the French and American revolutions; we experienced drastic changes considering rights. Why were these two of the biggest movements? I realize she isn’t asking this nor answering this question, but just food for thought.

1 comment:

  1. To answer your food for thought, I think that the reason why as you hinted at, war creates drastic change. During major wars and in their wakes we more than ever exaime what it means to be human, rights talk prominetly included.

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