434- "NATURAL RIGHTS"...THIS SOCIAL COMMENTARY YOU'LL WANT TO PONDER!!!......

This Philosophy major will describe, here, an indepth background of how people think and react far beyond the average Yogi Bear!
a- This concept of natural rights dates way back to the Ancient Greeks! What is a "natural right"? Rights that orignated from "Nature", or God, before the creation of the State, or governments. And they belong to all "men" upon birth and cannot be taken away, period, especially from a dictator like Castro or Venezuela's Chavez or Stalin or the "groupies" from Iran!
b- One of my favorite English philosophers, John Locke (17th century), argued that "man" was actually born into a state of Nature, being a ratational thinking being who knew about and understood, tolerant, of other philosophies and "happy" with his position. That position included the rights of life, libery and property. Sound familiar?
c- Not all, however, chose to live within those laws of Nature, creating a problem for those who did. Groups, or "states" (governments), felt a need to create a pact or "social contract", stating in writing what their members of society wanted and would receive. The Mayflower Compact was a social contract. Our United States Constitution is a social contract, with a uniqueness of being brief and allowing room for our America to change in prescribe ways. A "social contract" means that a group of people create and write an actual CONTRACT, sign it and agree to abide by its contents. For example, you sign a contract to purchase a home...and both parties, you and the mortgage company, must live up to the contents!
d- Locke was adamant that the only reason for the existance of government was to preserve those early Greek concepts of natural rights that included man's right to security and happiness.
e- READ again, please, Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.....
As a student of many classes connected with 18th century American life (an age when many young colonists/Americans read and widely discussed political philosophy), studying at Bridgewater, U.Va. and William and Mary, I am quite familiar with natural rights...v. laws that "man" makes.