A Declaration of the Rights of Human Beings On the Sovereignty of Life as Surpassing the Rights of Man

by Vaneigem, Raoul; Heron, Liz

• ISBN13: 9780745320229
• ISBN10: 0745320228
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-20
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

Raoul Vaneigem is an iconic figure in French philosophy. One of the founding fathers -- along with Guy Debord -- of the Situationist movement, his writings helped trigger the events of May 1968. After the inevitable Situationist split, Vaneigem pursued his own interests, and he has since established a unique place in the world of French political thought. In this new book, he sets out quite literally to create a new declaration of human rights, by updating earlier declarations -- from the French Revolution to the UN declaration in 1948 -- on the grounds that 'we can no longer make do with the liberties derived from free exchange, while the free circulation of capital is establishing a tyranny that reduces humankind and the earth to a commodity'. By turns playful, poetic and provocative, this is a remarkable book that makes a profoundly serious point about the way in which human rights have been eroded by globalization.

Author Biography

Born in 1934, Raoul Vaneigem was a member of the Situationist International from 1961-1970. Essayist and historian of religion, he has published numerous books on politics and philosophy since his seminal The Revolution of Everday Life (1967). He is rumoured to live in Belgium.

Table of Contents

Critique of the Declaration of the Rights of Man	1	(4)
Mercantile Freedoms Suggest and Deny Human Freedoms	5	(4)
No Rights Can be Taken for Granted, There are Only Rights to be Fought For	9	(2)
Rights Without Duties to Create a Way of Living	11	(4)
The Rights	15	(116)
All men and women have the right to become human and to be treated as such	15	(2)
Every human being has the right to life	17	(1)
Every human being has the right to independence	18	(3)
Every human being has the right to knowledge	21	(4)
Every human being has the right to happiness	25	(4)
Every human being has the right to dispose freely of his or her time	29	(2)
Every human being has the right to move around as and how he or she thinks fit	31	(3)
Every human being has the right to the freely available necessities of life	34	(9)
Every human being has the right to a home in keeping with his or her desires	36	(2)
Every human being has the right to healthy natural food	38	(1)
Every human being has the right to health	39	(2)
Every human being has the right to comfort and luxury	41	(1)
Every human being has the right to free modes of transport set up by and for the collectivity	42	(1)
Every human being has the right of free access to natural resources and sources of energy	42	(1)
Every human being has the right to exercise permanent control over scientific experimentation so as to ensure that it serves the interests of human beings and not those of the market	43	(5)
All human beings have the right to take delight in themselves, in others and in the world	48	(11)
Every human being has the right to self-alliance	50	(1)
All human beings have the right to be themselves and to cultivate awareness of their own singularity	51	(2)
Every human being has the right to authenticity	53	(2)
Every human being has the right to alliance with his or her own kind	55	(1)
All human beings have the right to association by affinity	56	(1)
Every human being has the right to replace state governments with a world federation of small local collectivities in which the quality of the individuals guarantees the humanity of societies	57	(2)
Every human being has the right to an alliance with nature	59	(2)
Every human being has the right to be reconciled with his or her animal nature	61	(4)
All human beings have the right to build their own destiny	65	(2)
Every human being has the right to create and to self-creation	67	(2)
Every human being possesses the right to step in and intervene wherever human progress is threatened	69	(2)
Every human being has the right to bend towards life what was turned towards death	71	(2)
Every human being has the right to improve his or her environment for the sake of a better life	73	(1)
Every human being has the right to consideration for his or her sensitivity	74	(2)
Every human being has the right to feel the movements of affection and disaffection which are inherent in the flux of passions and the freedoms of love	76	(2)
Every human being has the right to a natural life and a natural death	78	(2)
Every human being has the right to base the diversity of his or her desires on the plurality of life	80	(1)
Every human being has the right to a choice between activity and rest	81	(1)
Every human being has the right to be idle	82	(1)
Every human being has the right to striving and perseverance	83	(1)
Every human being has the right to his or her personal sense of beauty	84	(2)
Every human being has the right to progress and to regress	86	(1)
All human beings have the right to stray, to get lost and to find themselves	87	(2)
Every human being has the right to vanquish terror and tame fear	89	(1)
Every human being has the right to oppose threats	90	(1)
Every human being has the right to make mistakes and to correct them	91	(3)
Every human being has the right to an absolute freedom of opinion and expression	94	(3)
Every human being has the right to criticise and contradict what may seem most certain or what passes for a fundamental truth	97	(1)
Every human being has the right to hold nothing sacred	98	(1)
Every human being has the right to change	99	(1)
Every human being has the right to distantiation	100	(2)
Every human being has the right to the pleasures of each generation	102	(1)
Every human being has the right to reject suffering	103	(3)
Every human being has the right to give and to give of themselves without sacrifice	106	(1)
Every human being has the right to avoid frustration by replacing dissatisfaction with insatiability	106	(2)
All human beings have a right to their doubts and to their certainties	108	(2)
Every human being has the right to excess and to moderation	110	(1)
Every human being has the right to diversion	111	(1)
Every human being has the right to the freedoms of dreaming and imagination	112	(1)
Every human being has the right to anger	113	(1)
Every human being has a right to the body's well-being	114	(1)
All human beings have the right to adorn themselves as they see fit	115	(1)
All human beings have the right to their lies and their truths	116	(1)
All human beings have the right to open themselves and close themselves to the world	117	(1)
All human beings have the right to express or to keep silent about their emotions, their desires and their thoughts	118	(1)
Every human being has the right to attain artistic expression	118	(1)
Every human being has the right to the free exercise of goodness	119	(1)
Every human being has the right to innocence	120	(2)
Every human being has the right to count on the violence of life in order to ward off the violence of death	122	(1)
Every human being has the right to restore to the will to live the vital energy usurped by the will to power	122	(1)
Every human being has the right to protect and to be protected	123	(3)
All human beings have the right to have children for their own happiness and for the sake of those who are born	126	(2)
Every human being has the right to desire what seems beyond the realm of the possible	128	(1)
All human beings have the right to govern their own moods, whims and fixations without having to impose them on anyone else or be subject to those of other people	129	(1)
Every human being has the right to the poetry of existence	130	(1)
Every human being has the right to play on and make light of the actions and the values of the old world	131