rights

Rights are like muscles. They must be exercised regularly to prevent atrophy. They are earned through hard work and preserved through constant maintenance. As with any maintenance work, the cost of neglect can lead to sudden unexpected catastrophic consequences, particularly so when one can least afford to address them.

If rights are permitted to erode through negligence for enough time, like muscles they will wither away and cease to function as expected. Suddenly you may find yourself needing to carry a heavy load up a flight of stairs. Try as you might, you fail to lift it past the first step. Suddenly, authorities may issue a decree that infringes upon your livelihood - try as you might, you are unable to have your plight heard before the court. Or worse: your concerns are met with ridicule, ostracism, and eventual censorship as the regime and its cronies tire of your protest.

A common mistake made regarding rights is to think that they are granted by the government, as if the act of declaring their existence makes it so. The purpose of government is to secure and protect rights, not to grant them. Anything granted by the stroke of a pen can be rescinded with equivalent ease.

Can rights be inherited like property and assets, or must each generation learn to secure them anew?