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The Myth of Human Rights
“There are fashions in clothes and music. And there are fashions in politics. One current fashion in politics, all over the world, is human rights: ‘Human rights is the idea of our time.’ Everybody likes human rights. Not everybody respects them. I will make the claim that human rights are never respected, as human rights. Because human rights have no objective reality, there is nothing to respect. Some humans are worthy of respect, but not their imaginary rights.”
So begins Bob Black’s eviscerating critique of perhaps the most sacrosanct dogma in modern political pageantry — the idea that humans have rights.
Observing that human rights are conspicuously overlooked in foundational works of moral and political philosophy, Black argues that their conception is best understood as a hypostatic promotion of legal rights that were originally codified and enforced to advance the interests of the State. Examining the conceit of transcendental discovery that animates various attempts to mold reality around the resulting idée fixe, Black demonstrates that conflicting claims about inherent rights (and corollary obligations) – whether countenanced by God or nature or posited through tortuous sleights of sophistry – invariably collapse under a modicum of scrutiny.
In the course of dismantling the shaky metaphysical and logical scaffolding underlying various declarations of human rights, Black exposes the authoritarian hobgoblins that lurk within the lofty rhetoric of rights. Engaging with the relevant work of thinkers ranging from Max Stirner to Noam Chomsky, he demonstrates that, far from advancing liberty and human flourishing, the ecumenical myth of human rights provides ultimate cover for a boundless array of coercive agendas. In short, every claim of right is a veiled threat of violence.
Interlacing scrupulous scholarship with iconoclastic wit and erudition, The Myth of Human Rights is an essential work of modern myth-busting by one of the most incisive and original anarchist freethinkers of our time. This Nine-Banded Books edition is supplemented with Bob Black’s tangentially relevant essay, “Anarchy and Democracy: An Unbridgeable Chasm.”
So begins Bob Black’s eviscerating critique of perhaps the most sacrosanct dogma in modern political pageantry — the idea that humans have rights.
Observing that human rights are conspicuously overlooked in foundational works of moral and political philosophy, Black argues that their conception is best understood as a hypostatic promotion of legal rights that were originally codified and enforced to advance the interests of the State. Examining the conceit of transcendental discovery that animates various attempts to mold reality around the resulting idée fixe, Black demonstrates that conflicting claims about inherent rights (and corollary obligations) – whether countenanced by God or nature or posited through tortuous sleights of sophistry – invariably collapse under a modicum of scrutiny.
In the course of dismantling the shaky metaphysical and logical scaffolding underlying various declarations of human rights, Black exposes the authoritarian hobgoblins that lurk within the lofty rhetoric of rights. Engaging with the relevant work of thinkers ranging from Max Stirner to Noam Chomsky, he demonstrates that, far from advancing liberty and human flourishing, the ecumenical myth of human rights provides ultimate cover for a boundless array of coercive agendas. In short, every claim of right is a veiled threat of violence.
Interlacing scrupulous scholarship with iconoclastic wit and erudition, The Myth of Human Rights is an essential work of modern myth-busting by one of the most incisive and original anarchist freethinkers of our time. This Nine-Banded Books edition is supplemented with Bob Black’s tangentially relevant essay, “Anarchy and Democracy: An Unbridgeable Chasm.”
- GenresPoliticsPhilosophy
124 pages, Paperback
Published June 20, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 15, 2021
some of the points made are quite good, but i found that black doesn’t know much about psychology and his attacks on chomsky look really sad
April 16, 2023
Bob Black, as I described him far too many years ago, is the anarchist who pisses off other anarchists. Sometimes properly. Other times, well, I think he enjoys it and can let his glee make him miss the mark. This is not one of those times.
In the two long essays here, Black makes his point quite well that human rights are a myth and democracy is incompatible with anarchism. If those statements anger you, then you need to read this book and counter the arguments. I think you will be hard-pressed to do so.
Think what you will about Black (and you certainly will think something), but he makes his points here. You may not agree. You may not like them. They may make you uncomfortable. They will also make you think. And like it or not, that is something Black is very good at.
In the two long essays here, Black makes his point quite well that human rights are a myth and democracy is incompatible with anarchism. If those statements anger you, then you need to read this book and counter the arguments. I think you will be hard-pressed to do so.
Think what you will about Black (and you certainly will think something), but he makes his points here. You may not agree. You may not like them. They may make you uncomfortable. They will also make you think. And like it or not, that is something Black is very good at.
May 14, 2026
"for your might is the reason you live, not your right"
- me halfway through this book
This book provides good, well structured critique of rights, as it states in this favorite sentence of mine—that is: "An appeal to right is an appeal to authority". Rights justify authority, it gives power to the state. Human right is also said to be a new way of western domination. Although heavily critiquing rights, it does not mean rights are useless. Rights—be it human rights or whatever rights one might proclaims isn't inherently useless, but its usefulness is found if it makes its way to legal right, to positive law, or if it helps moving the masses to achieve a goal. "Deriving an ought from an is" is what happens to right on its own, if not mediated by the state, or authority, or not moving anyone but a cockroach, it becomes stupid.
This book also gives critique to objective morality, which usually if not always go hand in hand with rights. However, it doesn't critique moral on its own (from what i catch this isn't Stirnerian anti-moral view).
Lastly, my favorite part of this book is the Chomsky hate. That alone deserves 5 stars
- me halfway through this book
This book provides good, well structured critique of rights, as it states in this favorite sentence of mine—that is: "An appeal to right is an appeal to authority". Rights justify authority, it gives power to the state. Human right is also said to be a new way of western domination. Although heavily critiquing rights, it does not mean rights are useless. Rights—be it human rights or whatever rights one might proclaims isn't inherently useless, but its usefulness is found if it makes its way to legal right, to positive law, or if it helps moving the masses to achieve a goal. "Deriving an ought from an is" is what happens to right on its own, if not mediated by the state, or authority, or not moving anyone but a cockroach, it becomes stupid.
This book also gives critique to objective morality, which usually if not always go hand in hand with rights. However, it doesn't critique moral on its own (from what i catch this isn't Stirnerian anti-moral view).
Lastly, my favorite part of this book is the Chomsky hate. That alone deserves 5 stars
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January 17, 2025resumen: Bob quiere vivir en el mundo de My Little Pony, con el poder de la amistad como poder legítimo.
Entiendo lo que quiere decir, pero su solución no la veo muy desarrollada, o igual no lo he pillado del todo.
Entiendo lo que quiere decir, pero su solución no la veo muy desarrollada, o igual no lo he pillado del todo.
May 25, 2023
Expected more.
November 10, 2024
The author is using the term ‘myths’ not in a pejorative sense but in order to seeking out and create a new binding tradition, namely. possible motivation for human behaviour. A relative wish he is making on behalf of different groups. Myths or what Yuval Noah Harari has popularised as fictions.
As an anarchist he champions those groups who have had no authority over others in their tribes. He laughs at various attempts to tie down moral rights such as those undertaken by CS Lewis, Sam Harris and Noam Chomsky.
He makes much of the lack in objective morality. Even taboos such as incest and lying are far from universal. Meanwhile, most of the world rejects or finds no meaning in Western values.
Rights are a messy, often contradictory, fluid concept that are hard to agree on. Black has no trust in the state to police such disputes, not least because they enforce their rulebooks with the threat or administration of violence.
God-given rights are unlikely to satisfy the non religious and natural rights have little grounding. The goalposts have been constantly moved in order to label human nature as distinct from other species. Whether the anthropocentric rooting is being created in the image of a god or creating shaky “natural” criteria to set humans apart. Time and time again they have been corrected.
Even if rights are a noble lie, then Black’s point that they are myths, must stand. This much at least is true, whether or not you share the author’s closing wishes for anarchy, revolution, and the destruction of nations.
“I have to agree with Friedrich Nietzsche: “There are no moral phenomena, there is only a moral interpretation of these phenomena.” I think this is the most important idea of the 19th century.”
As an anarchist he champions those groups who have had no authority over others in their tribes. He laughs at various attempts to tie down moral rights such as those undertaken by CS Lewis, Sam Harris and Noam Chomsky.
He makes much of the lack in objective morality. Even taboos such as incest and lying are far from universal. Meanwhile, most of the world rejects or finds no meaning in Western values.
Rights are a messy, often contradictory, fluid concept that are hard to agree on. Black has no trust in the state to police such disputes, not least because they enforce their rulebooks with the threat or administration of violence.
God-given rights are unlikely to satisfy the non religious and natural rights have little grounding. The goalposts have been constantly moved in order to label human nature as distinct from other species. Whether the anthropocentric rooting is being created in the image of a god or creating shaky “natural” criteria to set humans apart. Time and time again they have been corrected.
Even if rights are a noble lie, then Black’s point that they are myths, must stand. This much at least is true, whether or not you share the author’s closing wishes for anarchy, revolution, and the destruction of nations.
“I have to agree with Friedrich Nietzsche: “There are no moral phenomena, there is only a moral interpretation of these phenomena.” I think this is the most important idea of the 19th century.”
May 28, 2025
A fun quick read. No fluff, straight to the point. A thoughtful analysis of the concept of Human Rights from an Anarchist perspective, but you don’t have to be an anarchist to appreciate the arguments. Recommended, if only because you should hear the best version of any point of view, especially if you don’t like it.
January 17, 2025
"Los derechos humanos no tienen realidad objetiva. No son verdaderos como lo son los hechos empíricamente. No son verdades en forma deductiva. No existen como algo que no sea una ilusión. Pero tienen un sentido: el objetivo de anunciar o legitimar la acción humana. Los derechos humanos son un problema moral y, como derechos no legales sino morales, no proporcionan razones para actuar, lo contrario sería un error en la correlación de los derechos con los deberes, porque los deberes sí prescriben acciones"
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews