Here is the next installment for the new book I’m working on. Feel free to comment.
PART ONE: NATURAL RIGHTS
I have had the type of freedom that, unfortunately for western culture, few people experience. I have backpacked over 15,000 miles on wilderness trails, always with a group of people, on journeys of up to seven months. I know how small groups can live life on our own terms, faced only with the unbiased challenges that Nature sets forth. Through this freedom I have gained insights into our natural rights.
Some might think that backpacking with a group of people falls short of the “Grizzly Adams” persona of individualism. Yet individualism is not really natural. Our prehistoric ancestors did not “go it alone;” they formed small tight-knit social groups that depended on each other to survive the challenges of the natural world. A modern day wilderness backpacker replaces the challenge of a nomad finding food sources with the challenge of reaching a difficult goal, but in other ways the two nomadic experiences are similar.
I experienced the personal freedom to set my own challenges, with Nature as the foil, and experienced both the benefits and costs of undertaking those challenges. Rain cares not whether you are black or white; the mountain cares not whether you are rich or poor; the wilderness cares not for any of your past failings or successes. I was free to succeed or fail in the moment, each moment, without culture either constraining or indulging me.
I experienced the social freedom of a small group working out the rules for living together on our own terms, independently of any predetermined laws or cultural mores. Laws have been touted as a necessity for ordered liberty and democracy, but nothing could be further from the truth. Laws are nothing but silly for a small group of people working out how we are to survive our wilderness experiences together. We were restrained individually at times by our social bonds, but that is similar to the saying about laws being “the wise restraints that make men free.”
I experienced the spiritual freedom of reveling in beauty every day. This was the beauty of a radiant sunset in the calm following a storm. This was the beauty of sitting under the shade of a pine with a gentle breeze on my face, listening to the music of a dancing brook. This was the beauty of making a tough climb together with another person who experienced life deeply. This was the beauty of sharing those beautiful experiences with others. This was the beauty of a close connection to God.
Freedom involves the possibility of choice. To say I have the freedom to breathe is meaningless, since I have no choice in the matter. Through my natural freedom I gained insight into natural choices, choices granted to us by Nature. Something granted to us is a right. Thus the choices that Nature grants to us are natural rights, whether directed by God or Evolution.
The natural rights of my wilderness experiences depart from the natural rights of John Locke, or the inalienable rights of Thomas Jefferson, which prove not to be natural or inalienable at all. The life processes such as breathing are not really a conscientious choice, though ending those processes might be. Owning property is a right, but one granted by government, as will be illuminated in a later chapter. Liberty is a vague term that could be contrived to mean a natural right, though in most contexts we think of liberty as something granted by government and not by Nature.
As the Part One chapters explore more fully, the choices/rights granted to us by Nature evolved to help us survive Nature. They are the choices that respond to our experiences. As such our natural rights are the evolutionary “toolbox” that makes us precisely human, unlike any other species. Other species share some of these rights, but not the complete set or to the same extent. To diminish these natural rights would be to diminish what makes us truly human.
Our life may end without our humanity being diminished. I knew this during those moments when I was hanging from a cliff, staring down a bear or holding off hypothermia. What got me into those situations may have lacked judgment but not my humanity. Indeed, I have never felt so exhilaratingly human as in those moments where life seemed near to an end. There are many smokejumpers, deep sea fishermen, police officers and soldiers who know precisely what I am talking about.
We may be devoid of property with no impact on being human. In fact, property sometimes deters us from our humanity, when we focus on possessions rather than the experiences of life. Early nomads survived without private property. To think that exclusive property ownership falls under the category of a natural right is simply ignorant.
In the traditional sense of the liberty concept, we may even have our liberties stripped with no impact on our humanity. The humanity of Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters did not diminish through their imprisonment. This was because government deprived them of the liberties that government controls, but not of those natural rights that make us human.
One of my favorite essays is “Are We Miracles or Machines,” by Loren Eiseley. He refuted a New York Times article claiming that humans could be considered machines, reporting on his own experiences with sparrow hawks that were bonded as mates. Eiseley had captured one of the pair and described the obvious joy when the two were reunited. For Eiseley this intense connection between beings distinguishes us from machines, but the same conclusion can be drawn based on our natural rights.
Robots are machines; humans are not. Robots may someday function exactly like humans. They may be created to have the exact mental, physical and even emotional capacity as us. They still will not be human, precisely because they lack our natural rights. Robots may be programmed to do anything someday, but not through autonomous choice.
The best way to discover your natural rights is to experience the natural world apart from both the indulgences and constraints of culture. We sorely miss out as humans when we replace the natural walkabouts, rites of passages, vision quests or even apprenticeships for entering adulthood with the culturally indulgent college scene. College is an invaluable training ground for our modern social systems, but too many people graduate with diploma in hand and no clue about the most important ingredients for what makes them human.
Too much of what great schools and scholars do amounts to fitting the square peg of their treasured scholarship into the round hole of human experience. Do not take my word for this. Rather, embark on your own natural rites of passage far away from cultural influences. In lieu of such a critical pursuit I offer to you the following chapters which, when considered all together, describe why humans are not bacteria, or whales, or robots.
The first installment was on Natural Altruism.
Tags: Natural Rights
