Wrongly placing material wealth over human rights (#1160)

This is the default position for many. The calculation is made that all the things I have worked for and attained outweigh my risking complaining about my rights as they are taken away right in front of me. When the things we surround ourselves with are of a higher priority than our own dignity, we have essentially quit on ourselves and the human race. The fear of losing our job for standing up to those who use the power to fire or let us go when they take from us the very rights they keep for themselves. We are so dependent on that paycheck that we are willing to let most anything happen to us. We, as a rule, don't stand for principles anymore. We stand for just getting by with what we can when we can. For most, when the strategy of cowering or ducking, instead of taking the opportunity to live with honor confronts us, is not even a consideration anymore, it is what we do automatically and then defend. Fear for your life as you know it is real, however living in an illusion to keep your things at the expense of your human rights is not worth it. Why? Because life is short and if you have whiled it away by letting others determine your rights you are in essence less than human. Antithetical to what a human being is by it's own nature. Priorities matter and if your priorities are not principled in thought and action, then what good are you to those who are? Those who stand on the side and watch as others are denied and stripped of rights are souls who have no courage to fight to protect the weaker. Having no courage is shameful and selfish. When all of us decide to stand against those who are psychopathic about ripping our human rights from our skin, it is then that we will be able ground those lost souls into history and move our society from the pessimism of class distinction toward the optimism of community and toward the continued advancement of human rights.