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Anthony Arnove's
biography
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QuestionWhat are the basic dignities that each human being deserves and why do we let so many people go without them? clairemackAnswer
Anthony Arnove: Every human deserves basic human rights that involve not just meeting of their material needs, although those are absolutely a must and should be met, the right to clothing, the right to housing, the right to be free of disease, which can be easily prevented. Those are basic material rights. But, beyond that, I think we have to assert the right of people to have control over their lives, the right of people to have individual personal freedom of expression, but also freedom to control the circumstances in which they find themselves. And that means not only the right to have work, but the right to have leisure. That means not only the right to work, but the right to control the circumstances and the nature of one’s work. And it means the right to be able to express oneself creatively, to be able to have the circumstances that really call out for the maximization of freedom, the maximization of creativity and expression. We can’t even begin to imagine the kind of human culture, the kind of human possibilities, the kinds of artistic possibilities that would be unleashed in the society, which meets basic human needs universally, minimizes drudgery, minimizes the amount of work, which is necessary in order to meet the basic needs of the society and seeks to maximize, creatively maximize freedom. We’ve never lived in such a society. We can’t even begin to imagine what a society might produce, but we certainly can begin from looking at history to understand that and the circumstances where people have gained those freedoms and control over their lives even in limited ways. They have been able to produce remarkable things.
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