It's a phrase I picked out of a Rage Against the Machine song (Revolver). What I'm about to use it for has no connection to its context in the actual song, but it's a line that's stuck with me for a long time.
Pictures of fields without fences.
The Native Americans had it right. You can't buy or sell the earth. You can respect a man's right to live there. You can respect a man's right to make a living. But you cannot own the earth.
It would only work in a perfect society - I know. These days you need fences, you need thousand dollar security systems, you need attack dogs, lasers, anti-aircraft missiles... all to protect your land. The land you think you somehow have more of a claim to than any other man.
Why? Because we won it from the British in 1776? Because we held it in 1812? Because you bought it? Here's a question... who did you buy it from? And why do you think they had the right to sell it?
We live in a beautiful world.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
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This makes me very sad.
ReplyDeletedo we protect the land itself or what the land stands for?
ReplyDeleteamerica protect its citizens rights.
a farm owner protects his ideal of a farmer, an independent hardworking individual who depends on his family and small community.
a person buys a house/small parcel of land to establish that in that small area, his/her ideas of morality, truth, etc. exist there.
the issue is not about the monetary value of the land nor the ways we go about protecting it. it is WHO we are protecting it against.