Nights, rights and fights...

And after perusing his rhyming dictionary, the Beard yet again comes up with some vague and puerile ideas of a tedious yet irrelevant subject to partially write about.... but there we are... now, a lot is said about the rights of the community and of the individual... and lets be honest, it doesn't matter when i'm writing this, there's bound to be something in the newspapers about this, even if just in the Star and the Mail... but i digress...

the point is, as anyone who even vaguely has an awareness of the Beard knows, the hairy blogger is in fact an anti-rights campaigner... yup, that's right... the Beard is actually a firm believer that rights actually muck everything up big time.... now, my biggest problem with rights is that it seems totally impossible to give someone a certain right without it either impinging on someone else's or being impossible to enforce....

for instance, gay people (and I have nothing against them) apparently have the right to get a full and proper Muslim wedding.... but the Muslims (and again, i'm not anti muslim...) have the right to freedom of religion and conscience... and their religion and conscience tells them that homosexuality is wrong.... so, whose rights come out on top? Well, seeing as both groups have the right to fair and equal treatment, it leaves us with a sticky impasse... we can't enforce the gay rights without stamping on the islamic ones, and verse visa..... and this is the problem.... and that's just one case... how about the supposed right of everyone to have enough food and sufficient shelter.... that means that no one should have to pay for food and housing, if followed to its logical conclusion... then there's the right to.. and so on... the sort that affects us most often though is the one where a person exercises his rights to the expense of anothers... for instance, a man's right to smoke in the park versus another's right to breathe unpolluted air... the right of someone to play loud music opposed to the right of another to have a peaceful kip... the right of one to cut down a tree opposed to another's right to enjoy the shade... and this is where rights really fall down....

So, what is the solution.. if indeed there is one...?? well, i firmly believe that what we should do is get rid of rights altogether... and introduce a system of privilege and rresponsibility... did i say introduce?? Well I should rather say reintroduce... after all, that's what we used to have, before those with the privileges turned them into rights in order to keep those perks without having to exercise their responsibilities.... now, it should be pretty simple to make up a code of conduct that fits our society.. or indeed any society.. lets be honest, a bunch of six year olds at my Beaver Colony can manage it, so you'd think so called adults could... we could start with "It the responsibility of a person to respect the wishes of others and consider the impact of his or her actions on other people..." that's pretty easy, and possibly obvious.... and would lead to a lot less antisocial behaviour.... tied with this, a list (almost certainly longer ) of the privileges that go with keeping to the code.. for example, the privilege of being paid in exchange for work, and the privilege of free movement throughout the world, or the privilege of eating sufficient food to sustain life...

Now the crux of the matter.. we make it the rule that if anyone in society reneges on their responsibilities, they automatically lose all their privileges... not just a few, but all.. this is not a pick and choose exercise... now, that may strike some as harsh.. but it may encourage people to think a little more about others rather than harping on about themselves... and it would lead to a better society.. if people know that responsibility is a part and parcel of life, it can't be a bad thing....

But I hear you all say, doesn't this bode badly for victims of the abuse of human rights?? Well, not really.... because the rulers will be bound by the same responsibilities as their subjects.... which means that if they forget those responsibilities then the people will be able to take the rulers' privileges away.... with a lot more ease and freedom of conscience than they have now.... which must be a good thing....

Now a natural adjunct of this would be the reintroduction of outlawry.. and lets be truthful, this does not mean running about in the woods looking glamourous in tights... no, better than that, it means that if a person breaks the law, then the law in return refuses to give that person its protection.... now, imagine the consequence.... if a person obviously and provable breaks the law, then that person can be trated in any way shape or form.... so, if you catch a burglar in your house stealing, then heaven help him, cos beating him up will not be an illegal act.... in fact, the victim would actually be perfectly allowed to take stuff off the burglar in recompense... sound good?? well, the only thing that stops us having a society based on personal and societal responsibility is our insistence on having rights.... so it should be obvious to all what we should do....

But on to lighter topics.... for instance the growing length of the days and the Beard's hair, mainly due to his having left his hair clippers in Solihull... but these things are indeed like circuit judges... sent to try us.... but I digress.... but it would seem that at some point our inaccurate measuring of days and nights will one day catch up with us... and hopefully when it does, it'll be good news for some, if not for all....

Now, on the subject of good news and of course good olds, last week saw a lovely trip in the hot sun to Dovedale, and the heights of Abraham, where the Beard and the Future mrs beard rode a cable car to the summit, went down a cave, and did other such Derbyshire related malarkey.... and a good time was had by all.. Beard Junior and future younger Step-Beard have been doing well in their respective examinations, and beard Junior has been gaining useful and paid employment as a general labourer... which is nice, as the idiom goes.... but the hour is not late for a change, so the Beard has not the advantage of a mind about to fall asleep, which may account for the budget deficit... lets be honest something has to... but there are things to see, places to do and people to go... so until we all have our rights revoked and our responsibilities evoked, Wisebeard Salutes You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!