The Global Community Tribunal

I have read and tremendously enjoyed the educated posting by Prof Francois Furstenberg under the title “Bush’s Dangerous Liaisons”. The post discusses the philosophy of the French Revolution and the similarities that can be found in the special brand of conservatism of the Bush administration. Although we could maybe return to the reasoning in this article some time in future, I would first like to deal with something else it reminded me of.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (La Déclaration dés droits de l’Homme et du citoyen) was the document that formed the very foundation of the French Revolution. It was adopted a mere six weeks after the storming of the Bastille and three weeks after the abolition of feudalism. It was a revolutionary document intended on ending the old era and ushering in the new, Age of Man. The motto of the French Revolution is well known to us all: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” (“Liberté, egalité, fraternité”). In our age some of these principles have become the foundation of our democratic and human rights culture. What however bothered me since childhood and when dealing with the French Revolution at school is this: Why have the principles of liberty and equality withstood the test of time and progressed into modern society, but the principle of fraternity is never mentioned? You don’t hear it except in some or other conspiracy theory or in regard to certain secret societies and the Freemasons. You can go and read the Human rights manifesto of the United Nations and nowhere will you find this principle - one of the three most important principles developed in human history, reflected in it.

According to Paul Thibaud, a French philosopher, “Fraternity is as great an obligation to respect one’s fellow man as Liberty and Equality are perceived as rights. It is thus a moral imperative.”

Have we lost the plot? Might it be that we have misplaced one of the chief ingredient of the recipe for a society in equilibrium? Have we lost one of the three pillars on which a free and fair society ought to be built? Is this the reason why liberalism succeeded in awarding more rights to the criminal than to the victim? Is this the reason why I am arrested when I shoot a robber breaking into my house, threatening the life and property of me and my family? Is this the reason why some can demand the freedom to recklessly destroy the environment at the expense of others?

All citizens are to be guaranteed the rights of “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression”. The Declaration argues that the need for law derives from the fact that “…the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights”. Wikipedia.

Human and civil rights have limits. It is not this unlimited rights without boundaries and responsibilities which are generally proclaimed.

I acknowledge the fact that most modern human rights manifestos include an article which provides for the balancing of rights with specific reference to the promulgation of statutes which may infringe on personal rights. In the South African Constitution section 36 stipulates: The rights in the Bill of Rights may be limited only in terms of law of general application to the extent that the limitation is reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom, taking into account all relevant factors. But it is silent on the question of how you balance the various, listed personal rights with one another. How do you balance the freedom of speech with the right to personal dignity? How do you balance the right of personal integrity of a women with the right of the unborn baby to life?

The moral imperative to respect one’s fellow man is totally neglected. The fundamental principle of brotherhood has been lost. With it we have dispensed with the glue – the common bond - that ought to keep everything together. That is why our society is falling apart.

It may be time to re-visit the French Revolution so that we can secure the whole package of “Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité”. It may be time to re-establish the Jacobin Club and call on the Lafayette’s, the Jean Jacques Rousseau’s and the Montesquies’s of our time to help find something very valuable that we have lost along the road from the Bastille to Guatanamo Bay.

J.C.Grobler.

PS.  Except for your response, the writer hereof receives no gratification of whatever nature for the work that went into the preparation of this posting. Please therefore be as kind as to rate this post by just clicking on the indicator below.  If you have an opinion (and I sincerely hope you do), please share it with us by leaving a comment.  

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 7:10 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.