[lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end

On 2005/05/28, at 21:00, Phil Enns wrote:

> No, it means what I said it means.  I can translate 'have no right to'
> into 'do not have the power to' with no semantic loss and certainly no
> need to start going on about rights.


Interesting. To me there is a clear and rather ordinary difference  
between, for example, "the Gestapo have the power to break down your  
door" and "the Gestapo have the right to break down your door." This  
does, of course, introduce a distinction between legality and  
legitimacy. Given, however, that this distinction is fundamental to  
every attempt to get unjust laws repealed or revised, the claim that  
"have no right to" is semantically equivalent to "have no power to"  
seems a callous reduction of right to might. I, for one, find that  
both forced and objectionable.

John McCreery


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