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| Ownership and the fear of losing |
Ownership is a state of possessing something usually
associated with property and material possession. Interestingly enough, such
social and legal status is a manifestation of a mind possession cultivated
within a survival-based economic system.
Such invisible need and social representation of survival
served to the foundation of physical divisions and in today’s society
everything has an owner and all is owned, whether is by an individual, collective,
government or corporation.
Starting by owning a name and a surname, we eventually carry
the weight of the family’s reputation. The ultimate separation that we are
facing in our times is the accumulation of such relationships, attachments and
unsustainable lifestyle where each one lives in its own bubble and delusional
state of security.
Ownership exists within and as the polarity of having and the
fear of losing, in a game where human relations participate in constant
friction. As a result, the future is motivated by the desire of winning and by
people’s wishes for an imaginary stability usually represented by nostalgic traditions
and principles that got lost in time.
"We’ve owned a system of slavery and
such weight has been greater than the self-will of men to free themselves"
Nevertheless, the idea of private property and ownership
that seem to be natural to our species has simply been gradually ingrained in
the human mind. In fact, once men thought that all things should be common, as
Heckewelder[1]
describes how Indians defended that the Great Spirit had made the Earth, and
all that it contains, for the common good of mankind, where everything is given
in common to the sons of men. Whatever lived on the land and growth out of the
earth, and all that is in the rivers and waters, was given jointly to all, and
everyone is entitled to his share. Hospitality with them is not a virtue, but a
strict duty.
Hobbes’ thoughts also put the whole construct of ownership
into question: “Nature hath given to each of us an equal right to all things.
In a state of nature every man has a right to do and to take whatsoever he
pleases: whence the common saying that Nature has given all things to all men
whence it follows that in a state of nature utility is the rule of right”.[2]
The urge to own something is the direct consequence of the
(d)evolution of the social and economic environments that we have been creating
for ourselves in the image and likeness of ourselves as the mind. But why do we humans have never considered
bursting the bubble? The reality is that we’ve owned a system of slavery and
such weight has been greater than the self-will of men to free themselves once
and for all. Each one is still accepting to “live” in its own island without
realising that the earth itself is the common ship we all share. In one’s
action, look at where you are not considering the other’s space, or where one
defines oneself for the goods possessed.
The extent of the millenary education and imitation of
existing costumes is so incredibly big that the need for owning goes beyond the
property and physical materials. People want to own other people, isn’t it?
That is what marriage is all about really, the rights and duties of owning such
relationship based on interests and the desire for financial stability. Another
example is children in our world who are thought to be owned by the parents and
will grow up always comparing themselves to the elders and needing to payback
the debt that parents sacrificed to raise them.
Everything that
exists in this world is a manifestation of the need to possess. Socially
speaking, people recognise others by that which they possess and the security
they have in the capitalistic system. This is mine, this is my mine of gold, and this is my anti-personnel weapon that maintains my neighbours away. But did you
know that in the Caroline islands, when an indigene set out on a journey, he
carried with him no provisions? When hungry he would simply enter a lodge
without any kind of ceremony, eat and leave when his hunger was satisfied.
There was no need for permission neither thanking anybody because he has but
exercised a right.[3]
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| Ownership is a target of the mind |
It is quite difficult to accept a lifestyle of complete
freedom. Certainly many think that no one could simply “enter my house and eat what I bought with my own money that I earned with my own sweat”. However, we dare you to de-construct
this idea of ownership and you will realise that no one really owns anything,
except the objective/target of owning something: do you really own your house or is
the bank to which you pay your mortgage? Do you know where your money comes
from? Couldn’t you be doing something more productive than exchanging your time
for money as a slave of this eco-no-me? Aren’t we tired of abusing our bodies
during almost all our life and expect to enjoy what we own when we retire?
The cure for such ownership possession is money for all
within a system that cares for all. Then the need to possess or to build
castles for the sake of security will become irrelevant, since fear is excluded
from the equation called Life. Ownership will not be necessary because what
will be valued is life in all its manifestations. People will not be able to be
defined by their haves and have-nots because everyone will have the best of
everything. Thus, jealousy, fear of loss
and crime will cease to exist since the origin of such has been the atrocious
inequality ingrained in the current economic system and promoted by greedy
egos.
Human beings don’t need to define themselves based on what they
have, but rather on who they are! The divide-and-conquer strategy has misled
humanity to believe that it exists in separate bubbles/countries/lands. If one
looks in Self-Honesty at the current system of ownership, one will understand
that it is against existence itself – human beings share a planet and there’s
nothing we can do to change this principle. Oneness and Equality must be our
starting point.
[1] Heckewelder
– History, Manners and Customs of Indian
Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States,
Reprinted in 1876.
[2]
Thomas Hobbes in De Cive – source: Paul
Lafargue The Evolution of Property and
Social and Philisophical Studies London: New Park Publiations, 1975. Print.
[3]
Paul Lafargue The Evolution of Property
and Social and Philisophical Studies London: New Park Publiations, 1975.
Print.
