Inalienable Rights

Natural Rights are often discredited or ignored as being undefined or nonexistent. This idea that Natural Rights don't exist is, of course, idiotic. The simplest way to explain that you have Natural Rights inherent by birth or given by your Creator is to propose a hypothetical. Let's try one.

Assume you are walking down the street and a man starts firing a machine gun and spinning around in circles near you. What would you do? The obvious answer is that you would duck and run. Even the youngest child will make efforts to protect his/her life, no matter the cost. This is your Natural Right to Life. Let's try another.

Assume that you are enslaved by another person. If it were not a risk to your life to escape that enslavement (and sometimes even if it were) would you make every effort to escape it? A good example here is loans and credit cards. If your credit card company told you that you had to either pay of the card or work for them for free for the rest of your life, you would do the former. You will make every effort short of risking your life (and sometimes even with that) to avoid enslavement. This is your Natural Right to Liberty.

The founders understood these rights and one other. The third is the Right to the "Pursuit of Happiness" which can best be described as "Property" by any economics professor. This I leave you to look up on your own. So, where did the founders say all of this? To quote the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"

Now, the real question. What exactly is meant by "unalienable"?

unalienable - Not to be separated, given away, or taken away; inalienable

just for safety, what's inalienable

inalienable - incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred

So what does that mean? The answer is that unalienable is an adjective. Inalienable rights cannot be surrendered. You cannot surrender your Right to Life for someone else's use. It was not to state that such Rights would not be surrendered so much as they could not be surrendered. Inalienable Rights are those which we cannot surrender to another's will.

Sincerely,
Ted