You Have The Right to Have to Go

Here's an interesting Mark Steyn piece on government overreach that hits a discordant note at the end-

The transformation of “human rights” from restraints upon state power into a pretext for state power is nicely encapsulated in the language of Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which states that everyone has the right “to receive free compulsory education.” Got that? You have the human right to be forced to do something by the government.

On the K-12 level, that makes some sense, even if it runs afoul to libertarian sentiments. If a kid doesn't have the right to have to go to school, he (or his parents) have the option not to have him be educated. Modern versions of Leviathan have abused that compulsory aspect to bar home schooling or private schooling that doesn't meet state specs, but having the option to send a six year old to work in the factory rather than educating him isn't in the kid's best interest, at least not in a civilized society where starvation isn't the alternative to child labor.

There are other rights that get forced upon us. We have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness per the Declaration of Independence, and government can apply compulsion to the first two. We can't sell ourselves into slavery even if we wanted to, nor could we ask for help in killing ourselves in most states. Last I checked, we can't be forced to try to be happy, unlike Ming in Flash Gordon, who orders his subjects to make merry... under penalty of death.

There's a spiritual element to this as well; some of God's love has us doing things for our own good. Being born again has some birthing pains that (if we have a more Reformed take on salvation) we have the right to have to go through.