Know What Rights
Are not being
Taken away
Your right
To consume
Out of fear
Your right
To consume
Overpriced goods
Your right
To consume
Mindless media
Your right
To consume
Alternative facts
Your right
To consume
Flags and banners
Your right
To consume
Guns and bullets
Your right
To consume
Perfected propaganda
Your right
To consume
Untruths of immigrants
Your right
To consume
Exaggerations of crime
Your right
To consume
Fear of groups
Your right
To consume
Alleged Armageddon
You also have
Your right
To think
Your right
To question
Your right
Not to support
Billionaires
Your right
Not to support
Drug cartels like
Tobacco and alcohol
Your right
Not to support
Pharmaceutical poisons
Your right
To be kind and empathetic
Your right
To be patient and understanding
Your right
To be loving and caring
The following is a little long
However, it is by George Carlin
So that makes it okay.
“Here’s one more item for you, the last in our civics book: rights. Boy, everyone in this country is always running around, yammering about their fucking rights. I have a right. You have no right. We have a right.
They don’t a have right. Folks, I hate to spoil your fun but there’s no such thing as rights, OK.
They’re imaginary. We made them up, like the Boogie Man, the Three Little Pigs, Pinocchio, Mother Goose, shit like that.
Rights are an idea. They’re just imaginary. They’re a cute idea. Cute but that’s all. Cute and fictional.
But if you think you do have rights let me ask you this, where do they come from? People say, “Well, they come from God. They’re God-given rights.”
Oh, fuck, here we go again. Here we go again. The God excuse. The last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument, “They came from God.” Anything we can’t describe must have come from God.
Personally, folks, I believe that if your rights came from God, he would have given you the right to some food every day, and he would have given you the right to a roof over your head. God would have been looking out for you.
God would have been looking out for you, you know that? He wouldn’t have been worrying about making sure you have a gun so you can get drunk on Sunday night and kill your girlfriend’s parents.
But let’s say it’s true. Let’s say God gave us these rights. Why would he give us a certain number of rights?
The Bill of Rights in this country has ten stipulations, OK? Ten rights. And apparently, God was doing sloppy work that week because we’ve had to amend the Bill of Rights an additional 17 times, so God forgot a couple of things like slavery. Just fucking slipped his mind.
But let’s say God gave us the original ten. He gave the British 13. The British Bill of Rights has 13 stipulations. The Germans have 29. The Belgians have 25. The Swedish have only 6. And some people in the world have no rights at all.
What kind of a fucking, goddamn, God-given deal is that? No rights at all? Why would God give different people in different countries different numbers of different rights? Boredom? Amusement? Bad arithmetic? Do we find out at long last after all this time that God is weak in math skills?
Doesn’t sound like divine planning to me. Sounds more like human planning. Sounds more like one group trying to control another group. In other words, business as usual in America.
Now, if you think you do have rights, one last assignment for you. Next time you’re at the computer, get on the internet. Go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia, I want you to type in Japanese Americans 1942, and you’ll find out all about your precious fucking rights, OK? All right. You know about it. You know about it. Yeah.
In 1942, there were 110,000 Japanese-American citizens in good standing, law-abiding people, who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That’s all they did wrong.
They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had? Right this way, into the internment camps.
Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took them away, and rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges.
That’s all we’ve ever had in this country is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year, the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter.
You see how silly that is? Yeah. Sooner or later, the people in this country are going to realize the government does not give a fuck about them. The government doesn’t care about you or your children or your rights or your welfare or your safety.
It simply doesn’t give a fuck about you. It’s interested in its own power. That’s the only thing keeping it and expanding it wherever possible.
Personally, when it comes to rights, I think one of two things is true. I think either we have unlimited rights or we have no rights at all.
Personally, I lean toward unlimited rights. I feel, for instance, I have the right to do anything I please. But if I do something you don’t like, I think you have the right to kill me.
So where are you going to find a fairer fucking deal than that? So the next time some asshole says to you, “I have a right to my opinion, “you say, “Oh yeah? Well I have a right to my opinion, and my opinion is you have no right to your opinion.” Then shoot the fuck and walk away.”
Thank you.
– George Carlin
Looking at the world through a windshield. 
A lot to consider here, Angelo! We were born with free choice, but our freedom can only go up to the point it doesn’t take the freedom of others. Quite complex, I know, and that’s why the world is as it is… I like the slogan: do as you wish but harm none. Thank you for another profound reflection, my friend. Much enjoyed! Light and blessings to you, always! 🙏✨
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Your wisdom shining through! And I appreciate Susana’s perspective as well.
Your inspiration funneled through my own little pea brain:
We are indeed free to believe whatever we want. Which is why so much nonsense is strewn about the world. And of course, thinking must be free in order for truth to survive. We must endure all the untruths so that what is actually true shines through the darkness of ignorance. It is not any of us as an individual who knows “truth” but we as a collective who can recognize it. For example, something that has been named “gravity” (or whatever word suffices, gravità? centrifugal force?) can be temporarily agreed upon until someone comes up with a better theory. What can we say to the person who thinks gravity (and the effects of it) was invented in the 17th C? The word itself came about in the 15th C but was used to mean weight or seriousness. But what did people imagine was the reason that things fell “down”? Most people explained it because they believed that everything had its proper place. Maybe that’s just as good a reason. But then others believed it was a dark force at work.
We are free to believe whatever outrageous or boring theory we like. Do you think it is possible to “know” what is more true? (if we stay with relativity). Do you think there is any benefit to help people come to understand those things?
I guess I’m wondering if there is a benefit to education – in whatever form that takes. Like learning lefty loosey, righty tighty. That’s quite helpful. Or math. Or grammar. Or physics. Maybe when we understand gravity, we won’t drop a hammer on our bare feet. (Well, some of us still might). 😉
What about learning that kindness is better than violence? Is it true that some arguments can only be won through killing? I choose not to believe that, but we now have a world where a huge proportion of college students think it’s an option. Which is what I guess Carlin was arguing for. But isn’t it amazing that some people created a few countries where it’s okay to argue and disagree and still have a pint at the pub together?
People get married to their ideas and then they identify as them. What do you think about this concept: We are not our ideas. We’re not our beliefs. We’re not our thoughts or our feelings. We are human beings – emphasis on Being. Human beings are never in conflict. Only their ideas (beliefs, feelings, etc.) are. It’s the ideas that go to war. Unfortunately, when people identify as their ideas, then they kill others. Could we come to understand that? Maybe if we separate ourselves from our beliefs, then we beings can be in harmony and let our ideas do the battle.
May the most loving emerge victorious!
Thanks as always, dear Angelo, for sparking the best flames!!!
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