Group Rights Advocates Fan Flames of Bias |
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| Media Link - New York Times | ||||
| Thursday, 29 April 1993 00:00 | ||||
Nowhere is the decline of political debate more apparent than in the controversy over "gay rights." The essential political issue is not whether homosexuality is a matter of choice or a biological determinant. This is a scientific question, which only a commitment to the honest and rational pursuit of knowledge can resolve. The central political issue is one of rights. In the United States -- as its political philosophy was originally conceived by Thomas Jefferson and others -- the function of the government is to protect individual rights. Since the 1960's, however, the focus has shifted from the protection of individual rights to the protection of group rights. Gay and lesbian activists are simply trying to extend -- quite logically -- the idea of group rights beyond race and the disabled. Advocates of group rights claim that the Jeffersonian philosophy of individual rights failed. After all, slavery continued for a full century after the founding of the United States. But the refusal of the Founders to practice their philosophy consistently is not an indictment of their philosophy. It simply means they evaded the principle they claimed to uphold. But the principle remains true nevertheless. In reality, only individuals have rights. There is no such thing as "group rights." Conservatives must accept that consenting adults are entitled to the sexual partners of their choice, and that laws prohibiting sodomy, for example, are as unconstitutional as they are unenforceable. Liberals, on the other hand, must accept that the principle of private property -- a byproduct of individual rights -- requires that employers be entitled to hire whom they please. "Discrimination" (whether rational or not) is a fundamental right, not the violation of rights it is thought to be today. And in a genuine capitalist system, one based on the profit motive, the best and the brightest always triumph, no matter what their race or sexual orientation. Those who think that only meddling bureaucrats can save oppressed minorities see all humans as helpless, depraved creatures. There is probably more prejudice and hatred in our society today than ever before precisely because of the increasing emphasis on group "rights." The focus must be shifted to individual rights -- before the group rights proponents devour us all.
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