Journey Toward Justice 6

There are different sorts of reasons given against rights-talk; against the language of rights being employed to talk about fairness in the society. One of the main arguments against rights-talk, as Nick sees it, is that this sort of thing amounts to strong sense of individualistic thing. 'My right' 'my right' 'my right' kind of thing conveys a sense of individualistic thought. Nick concedes that this might be there, but then the fact that this is there does not mean that we throw out the whole concept of rights. If we throw out the whole concept of rights, this would be throwing the baby with the water. What is the required is that where there is wrong employment of the concept or where there is abuse of rights language, there needs to be correction. After all many social movement like civil rights movement in the US or the movement against apartheid in South Africa and so on employed the language of rights and brought social change, yet they are hardly about excessive individualistic thinking. 

What critics of rights-talk often leave unsaid is what will be lost or what moral category/concept would be lost if this language or concept of rights is altogether discarded. And Nick would venture on to argue that something very key to moral discourse would be lost if this language of right is altogether discarded from our society. Therefore, rights-talk or language of right must continue to be part of our moral discourse.