Right to Happiness

In Lewis’s exploration of whether we have a right to happiness, I found his exploration of what a right was most interesting, and most damaging to Clare’s concept of a “right to happiness”.

Lewis made the important point that we do not have a right to what we want. We do not have a right because we are limited. We do not have a right to be tall, we do not have a right to fly, we do not have a right to become a bicycle. We do not have these rights because we do not have the ability to do these things.

And there, of course, lies the crux of the matter. We are not originators. We cannot give somebody, or ourselves, anything. We cannot give rights, we can only pass them on. If we decide to pass on a right, a freedom, say the use of our barbecue, to somebody else, we only give them that right by obligating ourselves to allow somebody to use our barbecue. If we pass on rights and freedoms to others, we also bind ourselves to uphold that person’s right to barbecue. Otherwise it is not a right, a freedom to barbecue, at all.

So rights are freedoms that are granted to us. As Lewis says, the government grants us the ability to drive on roads, albeit because it is us who pay for them. But so it is on a more cosmic scale. God allows us life, He allows us freedom to love, to be happy. Yet we would be incredibly selfish to think that we deserve these freedoms. And God, because he gives rights, he also makes conditions for them. For example, our freedom to live how we please is constrained by the physical world (jumping from a tall building will bring quick termination to this freedom). I think, then, the problem with Clare’s “right to happiness is that he believes he deserves it, and as he deserves happiness, he may use any means to claim ownership.

But that would be like my friend using my barbecue as a fish habitat in his koi pond. I would not appreciate that, and probably revoke his rights, because I know what is best for the barbecue, for my friend, and for the koi. His rights are limited because he is not the creator, and does not know the proper order of things.