The other day someone living in the neighborhood came up to the originator of the neutral-inclusive Norm. This person began to tell 'im that 'e had made the aquaintance of a strange foreigner who could not pronounce the r, not even when followed by a vowel. The acquaintance had wanted to talk about the recognition of rights in 'er own country and elsewhere but would constantly replace the r with an l. Thus, 'e would say "lights" instead of "rights", and when 'e said |LAWNG|, you did not know whether 'e meant long or wrong. The neighbor, a native speaker of This Language 'imself, laughed and asked the originator how on earth one could ever discuss an issue such as the question of personal rights with someone who was not able to distinguish between the sound |R| and the sound |L|.

Without a moment's hesitation the originator replied: "Your acquaintance can talk about personal rights perfectly well. It's up to you whether you consider the time it needs long or wrong, that is, longer than usual or too long. But it's not up to you that the rights of persons are, indeed, the lights of persons and that the right to personhood is the light to personhood."

Baffled, with eyes wide open, the neighbor looked at 'im. And this is how the enlightening answer was explained:

"Imagine there is a place in the infinite darkness of space with only one building; an enormous building, taller than the tallest skyscraper, larger than the largest palace, and more splendid than the most splendid temple. The building has an immense number of rooms of all sizes. People of all sorts live in these rooms; sometimes one person in one room, sometimes a few persons in one or two rooms, sometimes dozens of persons in a few rooms."

"On the outside the building is well-lighted by one huge external light. If the light were not there, the building would not even exist for the viewer. All one would see at the most would be a collection of haphazardly lighted, disconnected windows, the windows of rooms with various interior lights. On the inside some rooms are as well-lighted as the building, other rooms are only half-lighted or even dark. Their colors, too, differ: all the colors of the rainbow are represented. An interior light in one room may also be used to illuminate another room. However, a room light cannot be used to illuminate the building and the building light does not fit into any room inside the building."

"I hope you understand," the originator continued, "that here i have been speaking about lights and about rights. The exterior building light is personhood, the second-order value that illuminates the whole system of extrinsic rights and duties -- 'extrinsic' to a particular doctrine and its principles. The interior room lights are the first-order values individual persons or groups of persons adhere to. These values form the foundations of systems of intrinsic rights and duties -- 'intrinsic' to a particular political, denominational or other ideology. People may believe in these doctrinal or intrinsic values, rights and duties on the basis of their personhood, the same basis on which they have been assigned one or more rooms in the building. The cement of that building is empathy: empathy not only with those whose doctrinal position one considers not much different from one's own but especially with those whose doctrinal position one feels to be fundamentally different from one's own. It goes without saying that it is not the explicit use of technical terms on which this empathy depends. The strong mind may know in a simpler and not less proper way what it means to believe or to deny or to neither believe nor deny, and to let believe and to let deny and to let neither believe nor deny."

"A light which is probably found in most rooms is the light of truth. It should be in all rooms, but even if it is, it is not suitable for the exterior illumination of the building as a whole. The light of truth is also a person's right of truth, that is, the right (and duty) to tell the truth and the right to be told the truth. Some lights may be found in no more than one room or on no more than one floor. They may be extremely bright or extremely dim, and their colors may be painful to your eyes and their combinations may be disgusting to your taste. Yet, the one or more occupants of such a room or floor have the right to their light or lights. They don't only have that right on the basis of their own lights (which will surprise no-one), they also have that right in the light of personhood. And in the light to personhood, the light that leads to the acceptance and realization of everyone's personhood."

"I tell you and i'll tell the stranger that everything is ideal there in our universal edifice in space ... provided that no fool emerges from the feeble-minded who cannot distinguish first-order from second-order considerations; a fool who starts to entertain the silly belief that 'er next-door neighbor or neighbors should, nay, must illuminate their room or rooms in the same way as 'e 'imself does, with the same light or lights. The fool may appeal to 'er doctrinal values, virtues, rights or duties and try to convince 'er neighbors, but they, too, have the right to their own lights so long as these lights do not shine into the rooms of people who prefer a different light, or a dimmer light or, perhaps, no light at all. The fool may even start to entertain the much sillier belief that 'er own interior light ought to be used for the illumination of the whole building on the outside. Apart from the fact that 'er light is not made and not meant for that purpose, it would shine into all other people's rooms. The light of one perverse fool, who confuses the intrinsic and the extrinsic, the interior and the exterior, would shine into all people's rooms, those of the confused and those of the clearheaded alike. But the fool does not have that light, and the fool does not have that right. Even nonfools who are not arrogant and not dangerous don't have it."

"Now, if everyone, you and the stranger and i, saw what the fool was up to, there would hardly be a problem. But on Earth there are the muddleheaded in power, who are often regarded as normal, and there are the shortsighted in power, who are often regarded as rational. On Earth there are parliaments, governments and dictatorships that attempt to impose and that have but too often succeeded in imposing a total political or religious ideology on the nation. The majority of the members of parliament, the responsible ministers and the dictators in the countries concerned, or the political parties of which they are members, use and abuse their own interior lights for the outside illumination of that edifice which may be likened to a ship this time: the ship of state. The own lights of these parliamentarians, ministers and dictators are made to shine by them into the rooms of those who prefer a different light, who have a different light and who have the right to a different light."

"Clearly, the choice and intensity and colors of people's own lights should not be affected by the audacity of fellow-occupants of our common building to put their lights outside, where they don't belong. I say to you and to myself, and i'll say it to the stranger, keep on imagining that building in space, illuminated by the light to personhood on the outside and with rooms illuminated by the lights of persons on the inside. That's the way it can be, and that's the way it ought to be. But on the present planet there are the foolish and the arrogant and the criminal interfering with people's personal lights and encroaching on their personal rights."

And this the originator of the Norm added: "I'm sure the foreigner you've made the aquaintance of will already have experienced that rights are lights and that the encroachments on them are still rife in life."

60.NEY-63.NLY

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