You who've lost the concept of a right, you who swing in impotent
evasiveness between the claim that rights are a gift of God, a
supernatural gift to be taken on faith, or the claim that rights
are a gift of society, to be broken at its arbitrary whim -- the
source of man's rights is not divine law or congressional law, but
the law of identity. A is A -- and Man is Man. Rights are conditions
of existence required by man's nature for his proper survival.If
man is to live on earth, it is right for him to use his mind, it is
right to act on his own free judgment, it is right to work for his
values and to keep the product of his work. If life on earth is his
purpose, he has a right to live as a rational being: nature forbids
him the irrational. Any group, any gang, any nation that attempts
to negate man's rights, is wrong, which means: is evil, which means:
is anti-life.
-- John Galt
only to the extent which -- in chains, in dungeo in hidden
corners, in the cells of philosophers, in the shops of traders --
some men continued to think, only to that extent was humanity able
to survive ....
SUFFRAGE, n. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right
of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means,
as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another
man's choice, and is highly prized....
