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Entry: The Wrongs of "Rights" Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_wrongs_of_rights#7063 Post contents: 15 years ago in the UK it was still possible to argue in respectable company that moral/human rights were 'nonsense on stilts', to quote Bentham. Now that's probably an arrestable offence. Still, teaching my Law students I try to point out how Rights-speech is the product of Western individualist Enlightenment tradition and that its Universalism is not necessarily accepted by everyone. My Muslim students are happy to agree that Free Expression is just a made-up thing (one said 'a plot against Islam') but they're keener on the neo-Marxist rights. We agree that Lockean property rights are a good thing, though. Sent at: 2008 10 15