Rights and Entitlements

What does the rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" mean? What do we as an American citizen and a human being in general have the right to?

It appears to me that over the last fifty years the number of rights we presume have increased substantially. the right to do what I want, when I want it, where I want. The emphasis on Individual rights has seemed to skyrocket lately while the right for the greater good, to subsume one's own wishes to that of the community or nation as a whole, has practically disappeared. For example, my favorite, the boom box. A teen or twenty (or nowadays even older) ish driver has his/her boom box up to 140 decibels (it seems anyway) and is ahead, behind, or besides you at a traffic light, drowning out your every thought and providing you with a migraine in seconds. Yet it is his RIGHT to do so if he pleases. No sense of propriety or community. If he wants to do deaf, that is his right just do not include me in his plans. Or those who insist on using profanity and unacceptable language in public places. It is HIS Right to talk as he sees fit. No matter others are around or small children. His rights are violated if you ask him to temper his language (and he is likely to increase the filth in your direction if you do so). I sometimes substitute teach as a favor to my friends when they are sick or wish a day off. Today's students get up the in middle of class to drop something in the wastebasket or to sharpen a pencil. When asked why didnt they wait until the end of class, they look at you as if you were from Mars, "Because I wanted to" they would say.

Whatever happened to couth, public decency, community modes. Is there anything else than ME? Does the world revolve around ME and my interests? To examine public media, it appears not. But does it? Should it? In years past we had a hard wall between public and private. Many things we could do in private we would never even consider in public. But that line is blurred. The world is one now and that one revolves around me. My father is an avid smoker but he is careful not to smoke anywhere around his grandchildren, always outside, and always away from others. But he is old school, considerate to a T. In the modern society, he would be considered passive and outdated.

Shouldn't we take a step back and think what life would be if we were to be more considerate of others, others' spaces, others' feelings, others' concerns. And not just ourselves, our wants, our needs, our demands? Moral codes, decency standards, etiquette. Isnt it about time we start bringing these back? Our culture, or what is left of a decaying code of culture demands it.

Comments