That’s a knee-jerk reaction. I am entirely in favour of protecting the dignity of all human beings, especially the weak and the vulnerable. The problem with rights language, according to Newbigin, is that it goes way beyond the protection of human dignity to an elevation of the human race to a virtually godlike status – hence the idolatry language. By all means disagree with me, but please at least read carefully what has been said before firing off your vitriol.

There’s a very good reason why every educated person in the world today has heard of Desmond Tutu, and very few people have ever heard of Lesslie Newbigin. As for you, I regret having stumbled onto your blog, and I certainly won’t be back.

Long may you and Newbigin skulk in ignominious obscurity.

Thanks for this comment, too. I guess some of the commenters are arguing that Internet access is a kind of luxury and the more our society develops the more I would disagree with that. It’s especially important for Christians, for whom the issue of communication is central (although we must recognise that different styles of communication often in some subtle way actually change the content, too).

The point from which I began is more about the uncritical use of ‘rights’ language, as if it makes us sovereign, rather than God. I have no problem at all if by that what we really mean is something that is a necessity for life, an essential freedom. If I read you aright, that is, I think, what you are arguing, but please correct me if I am wrong.

I think that we who live in countries where our rights have been protected for generations forget about the human cost and struggle involved in gaining those rights in the first place.

For instance, I hate strikes and seldom see why they happen but I think the ability to strike (withhold labour where workers are being treated unjustly) must be protected as a basic human right.

The issue of making Internet access a human right is not an appeal to give everyone a computer and some way of connecting, it is about equality and freedom of access. There are several countries that are filtering content and not allowing free access to the Internet. There are still some countries where web access is just too expensive. There are plenty of people in countries all around the world that cannot participate on the same level as other people just because they don’t have access to the information others do on the web.

Even in our own country there is inequality between those who live in a City and those who live in the Countryside.

I’m sure you wouldn’t want to suggest that equality was not a basic human right.

The Internet is fast becoming an essential to gaining information and for business, it isn’t a toy for the lazy or those who want to indulge their own weaknesses. The world is already skewed in favour of some and with the Internet fast becoming an essential tool it would seem unfortunate to not try and address this in some way.

If the web were just some toy like a Wii or iPhone then I would agree but the Internet is the most important development for the world since the printing press (maybe even more important). Just as I think education and access to books is a basic human right so I also think the Internet is.

This issue is certainly not about lazy people who just can’t be bothered to get a job and pay for the things we ‘normal’ people enjoy it is about making something that is now essential for some basic communication available to all.

Yes, Internet access should be a human right.

Welcome here and thanks for your kind words.

Welcome here and thanks for taking the trouble to comment. The ‘god-related things’ – well, I talk in that frame of reference because I’m a Christian and I refer my thinking back to my core beliefs. Others may work from other philosophies or narratives, or a patchwork of them, but that’s simply where I’m coming from.

Welcome and thanks for the comment. It seems to me you are delineating a difference between a ‘right’ and a ‘freedom’. That – along with my biblical discussion above with Peter Kirk – seems to be an important issue to tease out more.