What I Think of Human Rights

I posted the following paragraph on Facebook in response to a graphic with the caption, "Water is a human right." I disagreed with that statement.

Mm...No, it isn't. None of us have any rights, really, except the ones we are willing to fight for, for ourselves and others. To me, the idea of 'rights' is an illusion created by law. What we call 'rights' are simply the way we would ideally like the world to be. I don't believe they are inherent, no matter what pretty things we might quote as a matter of politics. If we don't earn it ourselves, or if someone didn't earn it on our behalf, then we don't possess it, and we don't have a 'right' to it.

We have no rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness except insofar as we are willing and prepared to defend them every moment of every day. Any so-called right that we vote for ourselves we can also vote to deprive ourselves of.