Ethics precedes choice; to act ethically is to align with a pre-existing moral structure. Culture and context define these structures, limiting the individual’s moral authorship. The individual’s choice tends to select from prior notions or frameworks.
Thus, acts of radical freedom—like resisting systemic oppression—may be unethical within the current system, yet moral under broader humanist ideals.
This tension reveals a paradox: the individual, desiring autonomy, must navigate between inherited ethics and universal values (both of which are communally developed ideas rather than original individual constructs).
In such a case, "human rights" serves as both a shield and a weapon: a higher ethic (meta-tool) serving the particular desire. And yet, the ethic is still communal, only donned by the individual to both disguise and empower.