What Is More Important – The Will of Society or Individual Rights?

This question is pretty simple for me to answer, but than I get a dose of what society thinks and I get a little depressed. Is the will of society more important than individual rights? or vice-versa?

Since the birth of the Untied States of America, this country was built on the foundation of individual rights. A person was free to choose their path in life above the will of society. Lately, I’ve been getting a dose of societies reality from the media and it appears most people are starting to view “evil” individual rights as something that is holding back the “moral” will of society.

This will of society stuff is really just another form of collectivism. It turns a country from a movement of individuals interacting with other individuals freely, to a what is best for everyone. It sounds nice, but it really goes back to basic communist tyranny. Here is an example I’ve heard lately, the police should have the right to search everyone in a public place for drugs. The idea here is that the will of society, which is drugs are illegal, is more important that a person’s rights, which is the 4th amendment.

If you look at America, people came her from Europe with absolutely nothing in the way of possessions and they used their individual freedom to build the most prosperous country in history. Individual freedom in the United States transformed the way most countries in the world think. The countries that embraced individual freedom (Western World) are rich. People are free and happy. While other countries that held onto the idea of dictators and other collective thoughts are poor. People are scared and unhappy.

I think individual freedom is one of the greatest things we have. It is what has given us such prosperity. It is what has improved our lives. It is what protects us from random searches or restrictions to our speech. We need to embrace individual rights as the greatest thing to ever happen to us.

By: Craig Nash

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