Keep Out - It's Mine!

As I continue to grumble daily at world events - yes I really am a grumpy old man! - I realise how the root of so many conflicts is PROPERTY.  People, groups of citizens, nations claiming OWNERSHIP of something tangible, like land, or if you really want to be wacky, intangible, like software.  The French anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, coined the slogan "Property is Theft".  In his 1840 book 'What is Property?', he wrote:

"If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder, my meaning would be understood at once.  No extended argument would be required....Why, then, to this other question: What is property? May I not likewise answer, It is robbery!, without the certainty of being misunderstood; the second proposition being no other than a transformation of the first?"

There have been many debates about Proudhon's philosophy and there is inevitably a natural reaction to individuals accepting the premise that they don't OWN anything!  We were all fortunate to be born on this planet.  However, some were more fortunate than others to have been born in prosperous locations.  Whilst others were very unfortunate to have been born into communities where poverty and starvation are rife.  To a large extent the different environments are man-made by successive territorial claims over many generations.  So we now have a modern world with territorial boundaries established by homo sapiens and only respected by homo sapiens.  Within these national territories the planet's resources are used and abused by humans in accordance with some haphazard rules of ownership.

As I write this blog post, I am gazing across MY garden.  I know it's MINE because it has boundary fences and nobody can enter without my permission!  But having said that, there are many creatures in MY garden - birds, hedgehogs, geckos, snakes (yes, we've got those!), land crabs (those as well!!), insects, bats, lizards........to name but a few.  Do they know they are in MY garden.  No they don't and why should they?  It's as much their garden as it is my garden and without them, as well as the trees, plants, shrubs and other life forms, the place would be empty and sterile.

The bizarre thing about human ownership is that we assign a monetary value to our possessions.  It is quite likely that scarcity of land, property, or both can drive prices upwards.  So the monetary value of our property can increase through no effort on our part.  But one person's gain is another person's pain and as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and life's lottery for survival continues unabated.  The tension between rich and poor, haves and have-nots, increases conflict and provides excuses for war........and we think that's civilised!

If I were a bird or a fox or a squirrel, and I viewed the antics of human beings, I would probably be impressed at their collective intelligence and achievements, but amazed at their arrogance and selfishness.  Somehow the mindset of ME and MY has to give way to WE and OUR, where the latter embraces ALL life on OUR planet.

Is this Utopian nonsense?  Unfortunately it probably is, but only because our arrogance and selfishness permit it to be.