15 December 2022
Suction, coldness, darkness, centrifugal force, and states’ rights have one very important thing in common. They don’t actually exist. They are all convenient constructs that help to simplify the analysis and application of natural or social phenomena. “Suction” refers to a pressure differential; vacuums don’t suck, higher pressure pushes. Coldness and darkness respectively are simply the absence of heat or light, measurable physical phenomena, and centrifugal force is just an easier way of understanding the effect of constantly changing momenta.
A moral theory of rights denies the existence of a state having rights, as its existence is predicated on usurping the rights of individual actors, and only individual actors can have rights. Some may argue that rights themselves also don’t exist, and their argument has merit. Rights are an emergent property of (so far) human intelligence. Just as Kepler and Copernicus could wring a coherent understanding of astronomy from the observations of ancient astrologers, and Priestly and Lavoisier could craft chemistry from the bones of alchemy, so too could secular ethicists divine a theory of rights from our mystical forebears. As briefly as bearable, I would define rights as the reciprocal protocols of expectations shown to result in the greatest measure of prosperity, longevity, and liberty to human societies. Reciprocity, of course, is essential. We clearly do not respect the chicken’s “right to life,” any more than said chicken respects the rights of the bugs that it eats. But when a person violates the rights of a person, he has demonstrated his abandonment of the protection of rights. He has surrendered his rights through his own misbehavior. Boiling it down further, some might equate rights with the most basic set of kindergarten rules: Don’t hit people and don’t take their stuff. Refining that thick syrup into finer crystal, I would just say: No Trespassing.
“States’ Rights” are the powers retained within a confederation or a compact, which is the voluntary agreement between states to delegate some powers to a confederate or constitutional body. Within the context of their agreement only do states’ rights actually exist. They are constructs designed to simplify our understanding of federal relations. No sensible libertarian would ever suggest that a state has rights, but an honest reader of the Constitution will see that through their ratification of federal union, states assert and retain their prior authorities.