Right!
Sometimes it is clever to not take your rights, even if you got the law at your side
In modern society, rights seem to be the most important issue. More important than climate. More important than peace. More important than health. The only thing that seems to come close to “rights” is “freedom”, but that is perhaps because those two words are frequently being used side by side. In modern society, people are thaught to have rights. And they have, no doubts about that. The only thing is: you cannot just claim your rights. And that is something, anyone seem to forget.
I simply do not remember who told me the quote, I started with. I even do not remember when. It might be someone from Holland, when I lived there, or someone from Denmark, where I live now.
I remember vaguely the circumstances, but really only vaguely. I remember that I was talking to someone about a service or a product that I had bought, but I regretted my purchase. It wasn’t a very expensive thing, but I was intended to undo the purchase. Then I heard those wise words. I am not sure if it was my own conclusion or not, but I decided that I might not be popular to the seller if I took my legal right to undo the purchase. It wouldn’t be a big deal either. The company in question would perhaps block me from future purchases. Or maybe they’d think I am an idiot. In best case they would’ve frowned at me, and shrug. But they surely wouldn’t have thought of me being a cool guy, an appreciated customer. As I don’t remember the company, I think they still don’t see me as a dream customer, but at least they won’t remember me in any negative way (not that I care if people think negative of me).
Although I don’t know when, how and by who I was told about the cleverness of not taking your rights, the sentence has flown around in my head ever since. In the beginning, I only new that is was clever not always taking your rights. But actually, I found out why. And I’d like to share it with you: because rights and duties are inseparable connected to each other. Let me explain:
You have no rights, if you haven’t done your duties, to obtain that particular right. The law, however, does not take duties into accounts. Rules and laws and made for those, who do not want, or who can’t behave themselves properly, and their victims. Furthermore, rules and laws are designed to avoid situations similar bad experiences from the past. Rules and laws try to define what is allowed and what is not allowed, the consequences if the rule isn’t being held, the exceptions of the rule, determination of who or what can judge the rule and/or the rule breaker, but NOT the conditions of the rule. Sure, the word “unless” is often used in law books and rule texts. But that is not a condition on forehand. That is an exception of the rule. Lady Justice isn’t interested in conditions. She doesn’t care if you earned your premises. She doesn’t care if you have behaved yourself properly. She doesn’t care if you’ve done your duty.
Today is November 3rd, 2020. That means, that USA is going to vote whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden is going to be President of The United States of America in the next four years. Donald Trump is older than 35 years, has lived in The United States in at least 14 years, and is American citizen. So he has the right to be a presidential candidate. Before he became President, we told to everyone who wanted to hear it, that Barack Obama was not eligible to be President, because he (Obama) allegedly wasn’t born in the United States. This was of course fake news. Trump tried the same with Kamala Harris, but obviously he dropped this course again. But is Trump himself eligible to be President of the United States? No, if you ask me. Legally, he has all the rights. But morally, ethically — no. He has not been treating people nicely. That is not a legal requirement to become President. Trump is being dividing the people. Sure, that is what Julius Caesar taught the world: divide and conquer. It might work, but it is still a bad thing to do. And that is just the problem: legally, there is nothing against Trumps style of ruling.
Enough about Trump. Let’s see about your rights and your duties. But let’s stay in the subject: elections. There might be some procedures, but in most countries, all adults can vote, unless (!) they are prohibited by some exceptions. That does not mean that everyone does vote. In a democracy, there is no legal duty to vote. So let’s say, you don’t vote. That’s up to you. But you don’t like the outcome. And you complain. To your friends, families, on the social media. Legally there is nothing wrong. But it doesn’t suit you. Simply because you HAD a chance to exercise your influence, even if it is a very little influence. But by voting, you have done your moral duty: you have expressed your choice.
Many people in the modern world are acting on what they are permitted to. A few months ago, my neighbor came to my front door. He complained about some flowers on the other side of my hedge. Technically the flowers are on my ground. However, I don’t see those flowers. The problem with the flowers is that they are giving seeds, who blow to his garden. And he does not want those flowers. I like wild flowers, because it’s good for de bees. So even if I had seen the flowers, I wouldn’t have removed them. But my neighbor pointed to a rule in the law: it is my obligation to keep my garden and ground clean and neat. If you ask me, it is a strange rule. My neighbor can have a totally different view on what is clean and neat. As I said: I like bees flying from flower to flower, I would like to keep that.
It was my right to say to the neighbor: “I like my garden as it is. If you want me to remove those flowers, then call your lawyer”. I didn’t. I just removed the flowers. Despite my wish that bees have many flowers. There are many other flowers in my garden, inside the hedge. Five or ten less flowers doesn’t make the difference. And although I don’t like my neighbors approach of calling in the law, I still have a neighbor I can talk to, ask for help, smile to, invite to a party in the backyard (when Covid-19 has passed), and so forth. Think how my relationship to him would be if I suggested him to call his lawyer. Besides, if he had called his lawyer, then he had to pay for the man (or woman). He surely would have won the case, since there is a legal rule which I broke. And if he had won, I would have been paying the legal costs to the court — but not his lawyer! It would have costed him money. We would lose both: I would lose legally and financially, he would lose financially. And the relationship would be damaged, so we both would lose socially. The only one would win is the lawyer on either side.
So what about your rights? Let me ask a few, — perhaps controversial — questions. Do you have the right shout at your neighbor? Do you have the right to quickly turn to the left in front of a car, who’s coming from the left? Do you have the right to bear a weapon? Do you have the right to abort? Do you have the right to (or: the freedom of) speech?
If you now think the answer to all these questions is “no” in my opinion, then you’re wrong. You have the rights if — and only IF — you have done your duties! What those duties are, differs from situation to situation. And so do the rights: the right to shout at your neighbor differs from person to person, from time to time, from place to place, from circumstance to circumstance. But the ground rule is:
Does it feel right or am I right?
That is a huge difference.
Take care, and vote carefully!
