Alienable Rights

Alienable according to the Unabridged Second Edition of the Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary means capable of being sold, transferred, or conveyed, as real estate. Something alien is foreign, strange, and in some cases not natural. What might Alienable Rights mean as opposed to the Unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness referred to in the Declaration of Independence of the United States written in 1776.

Antonyms of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness could be Death, Incarceration, and the Surrender to Suffering. Are these Alienable Rights capable of being sold, transferred, or conveyed, as genuine property; or, as a genuine state, condition, or stage of Life? I think we all bear witness to such a myriad of circumstances. It's said in Poor Richard's Almanack, "Is there anything men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy?"

Not I, not anymore. Those are Rights founded in wrong. Rights that are contrary to justice, goodness, equity, and law. In the words of Thomas Paine, "A Right to be truly so, must be right in itself, yet many things have obtained the name of rights, which are originally founded in wrong. Of this kind are all rights by meer conquest, power, or violence... But in the case of a right founded in right the mind is carried cheerfully into the subject, feels no compunction, suffers to distress, subjects it's sensations to no violences, nor sees anything in its way which requires an artificial smoothing."

Who in their right mind would consent to needless death, incarceration, and suffering? Nobody. But wait, there's express and implied consent. "Express consent is permission for something that is given specifically, either verbally or in writing. Express consent contrasts with implied consent, which is an assumption of permission that is inferred from actions on the part of the individual." History has recorded volumes of death, incarceration, and surrender to gloom so it can be implied the people involved were consenting through their actions to said Alienable Rights and the proprietors surrendered to rights founded in wrong. History has also recorded volumes of those who realized Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and procured a Constitution so that a Republic can secure a posterity who might realize the same Unalienable Rights. The bad news is we all seem to be guilty of acting against conscience at some point in our lives. The good news is it could be forgiven if and when forgiveness is given consent and made a real estate in our lives.

Let's think if we individually or socially consent, either expressly or imply, to the sale of alienable rights and surrender to rights founded in wrong in future decisions to be made. We must strive to be reasonable on all accounts Without your reasoning mind all your Rights are alienable and subject to forfeit. In the words of Ayn Rand,

“Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. man had no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons,and to make weapons - a process of thought. From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and we have comes from a single attribute of man -the function of his reasoning mind.”