George Carlin. (№ 370009)

One more thing for you, the last in our civic book - RIGHTS. God, all the people in this country constantly run around and shout about these rights: "I have a right, you have no right, we have a right, they have no right." People, I hate spoiling your fun, but there’s no such thing as “right,” ok? This is an invention, we came up with them, like the Boogeyman, Three piglets, Pinocchio, Mother Goose, f**k like that. “Rights” is an idea. They are just made up. This is a nice idea, but that’s it. Sweet and made-up. But if you think that you have rights, let me ask you this: “Where did they come from?” People will say: “Well, they were given by God, these are God-given rights.” Here we go again. Justification by God. The last refuge of man without answers and arguments is "they are given by God." Anything that we cannot explain must be descended from God. Personally, I, people, think that if your rights were given by God, he would give you the right to some daily food and give you the right to a roof over your head, God would watch over you. He would not be worried about whether you have a gun, because you can get drunk on Sunday evening and kill your girlfriend’s parents. But let's say it’s true. Say God has given us these rights. But why should he give us a certain amount of rights? The bill of rights in this country has 10 provisions. OK? 10 rights. And obviously, God worked sloppy this week, because we had to change this bill 17 more times, because God forgot a couple of things, like slavery, just slipped out of his head. But let's say God initially gave us 10 rights, he gave 13 to the British, 29 from the Germans, 25 from the Belgians, only 6 from the Swedes, and some people in the world have no rights at all. What is this divine providence? No rights at all? Why would God give different people in different countries a different amount of rights? Boredom? Entertainment? Bad arithmetic? Is it really after all we just find out that God is not strong in mathematics? No, this is not like divine planning. More like human planning. It looks like one group is trying to control another. In other words, business is a common thing in America. Now, if you think you have rights, one final task for you. The next time you are at the computer, go to the Internet, go to Wikipedia, type “Japanese Americans 1942” in the search field and you will learn all about your precious rights. In 1942, 110 thousand Japanese-Americans, trustworthy, law-abiding people were thrown into military camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That’s all they did wrong. They did not have the right to a lawyer, they did not have the right to a fair trial, they did not have the right to a jury, without the right to an investigation of any kind. The only path they had was right here - to military camps. It was when these American citizens most needed their rights that the government took them away. And rights are not rights, if someone can pick them up. These are privileges, and that is all we have ever had in this country - a list of temporary privileges. And even if you read news from time to time, you understand that this list is getting shorter and shorter every year. When it comes to rights, I personally think that two things are true: we have either unlimited rights or no rights at all. Personally, I tend to unlimited rights.