What one has earned - What one deserves

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

There’s lots of people who will question the rights of others, and with equal conviction, their own.

What do I deserve? What have I earned? What is fair, honest and suitable for me?

The answer can be traced back to our existence itself.

Do we have a right to exist? If yes, why? Do I deserve it? Have I earned it?

You exist because you’re capable of existing. That is the criterion that has applied to everything. If it can be, so be it. If it is, it is true. There is no question. - We react to what is, we don’t choose.

Am I capable of respecting myself? Am I capable of being fair to myself?

Yes. Therefore, if I do, so be it. There is no question.

How will others react?

When one doesn’t respect oneself, one is never at rest. When one respects oneself, one is at rest. One will either find rest, or burn away first.

What does one want?

To be as one would be influenced to be. The path of least resistance.

Everything is deserved or nothing is deserved. Everything is earned or nothing is earned. We have a right to everything, or nothing.

Whichever side, there is no difference, it’s all one in the same, therefore, there is no question. There is no point for a question. It is as it is.

2

Rights (Wiki) - are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory.

To me, the value of a right or it’s function, is to allow one confidence in an act without fear of negative repercussion. If you have a right to breathe, you can breathe without someone retaliating against you.

Rights allow us to cooperate with mutual benefit. It’s a framework for equality.

By it’s design, one attributes rights to others by default. If one didn’t do this, it would render the invention useless because it’s intent is to allow people to cooperate. If I don’t respect your rights, you will ignore the concept all together of entitlement and fight against me, because I’ve treated you unfairly.

This is how we’ve survived. If we didn’t fight against abuse by others, we would perish. We don’t want that.

I often thought I had no rights. Why? Because that was the only way I could cope with the abuse of me. A sad reality. However, to deny one’s rights, is to condemn oneself to be the perpetual victim.

The hardest part, I think, is to acknowledge the wound. One must do this to stop the bleeding. The longer one ignores, the more the wound festers and the harder it is to heal.

The way to stop being the victim, is to admit what has happened - grieve for what has happened - forgive, and respect the source of the conflict - wipe the slate clear, and let go of the pain - learn from what went wrong, and how to best go forward - go forward.

3

I don’t know. T-Rexs are clearly capable of existing - as they have previously demonstrated. But none actually exist.

I think there is a lot of truth to this, and (as it seems to be the thrust of your post) I agree. Not everyone is in a fortunate enough position to be able to fight for their own rights, but those who are, should. Moral concerns aside, I believe society works better when everyone is it has basic rights - I think the stability of Western democracies acts as a demonstration of this principle. Any strong repression of people’s basic rights acts as a potentially destabalising force in a given society. It’s also a failure of the social contract that someone has been entered into involuntarily when they were born.

4

My point might have been a bit unclear.

What I was trying to say, is that we have already overcame the pressure that was applied to us. All that exist in the present, have contributed just as much as us to be as they are in the present.

The only criterion applied that distinguishes between what does exist and what doesn’t, is capability. Since all that exists has equally passed this, there is no room for discrimination between two that exist. Therefore, equal rights.

If something was truly capable of existing in the present, it would exist. There’s no choice or alternative to this.