On 25 October 2019, the members of Liberty Discussion Group sat down at Gaia Restaurant and Coffee Shop to discuss the essay ‘Man’s Rights’ by Ayn Rand.
Liberty Discussion concluded with a substantial exchange of opinions and analysis in regards to the foundational idea of Liberalism that focused on the civil rights of the people. Ayn Rand, a fundamental proponent of liberalism, writes about how civil rights ought to be based on the ideology of Classical Liberalism. The discussion saw an impressive number of participants willing to express their critical views regarding the ideology, as well as listen to opposing viewpoints proposed by participants subscribing to conflicting ideologies.
The moderator of the session proposed the participants to compare the ideas presented in the essay with the elaboration of Fundamental Rights and Duties of the Citizen prescribed in the Constitution of Nepal. The purpose was to request participants to discuss whether prescriptions provided in the Constitution should have rather followed the ideas provided the essay or not. As expected, diverse opinions floated, and participants debated whether rights to entitlement to an object in terms of education, employment, healthcare, food, and housing to all citizens provided by the constitution should be or should not be. Interestingly, while some participants advocated the necessity to provide a basic level of education, healthcare, food, and housing, others argued the fluidity of the term “basic level” which may eventually be redefined at a higher level as people became more prosperous. As such, a basic level of education which might be education until a person is literate may eventually refer to secondary level of education in the future as the country become more prosperous. Likewise, when participants discussed on the right to clean environment, there was unanimous agreement among participants as even participants subscribing to liberal ideologies believed that right to clean environment is not a right to entitlement to an object but a form of right to a person’s property in terms of breathable airspace.
As time was limited, members could not discuss more on these issues even though they desired to. But as always, members can always continue their discussion on the Facebook group.