I was watching a Joe Scott video about the Somerton Man, and at one point he mentions it’s believed he just wanted to be forgotten.

I’ve met a lot of people who are like this. They feel too dysphoric about their life and are eager to see the day when their families all pass away or have memory loss so that the worst parts of their life aren’t in other peoples’ heads anymore. It’s sad.

There are a lot of things we consider rights by default. There’s a right to a burial. There’s a right to a last meal. There’s a right to a will. Some of these have people who philosophize about them but most are taken for granted.

Do you think there’s a right to be forgotten? How much do you validate it? What’s your reasoning?

  • southsamurai
    3·
    2 days ago

    Gotta frame the ideas first.

    A human right is something that should be inalienable. It would be something that, when violated, suppressed, or interfered with, would cause some degree of problem, regardless of the country or other geopolitical framework.

    A civil right is a right which would similarly cause an individual some degree of problem, but only within a given geopolitical framework.

    As an example, voting. In any state, it should be a right that every individual human have a say in their own governance. But voting is only one possible expression of that underlying right, and wouldn’t be applicable in all settings. That it is the most direct and obvious expression is separate.

    So, no, I don’t think the right to be forgotten is a human right, as it only matters within limited contexts. But it should be considered a civil right.

    Now, if anyone doesn’t like those terms, fine, feel free to use your own. They’re just what I use in my head for organizing ideas, not some kind of official thing.

    The only reason the distinction matters is that we currently live in a world where not everyone agrees on what are and aren’t human rights. When a given culture outright rejects things that another holds central, there’s not going to be consensus. That’s not to say that the consensus would be right, but if everyone agrees on it anyway, then the distinction ceases to matter because they’ll effectively be the same thing.