Will we choose sustainable living, or like Cuba, will we wait until it is forced upon us through some kind of regional or global crisis? This is NOT about capitalism versus socialism or any other form of political system. There are as many, if not more, people starving worldwide because of capitalism – as many as 1 billion are short of food even as you read this. And we have plenty of food worldwide, just no distribution system for it because of a profit-only driven supply system. Monetarily wealthier countries like China are in a crush for more land to grow food for their population, so they are busy buying up land all around the world, especially in poorer Africa. It’s not unusual for rural villages in Africa to wake up to noise and find out that a fence has been put up almost over night partitioning off ‘their’ farming land from the village in which they live. To history minded readers, this is similar to the ‘enclosures’ of European history, beginning around the late 1500s, when wealthy landowners would acquire public land and push off the small local farmers who were using it. Definition Wiki: “Enclosure (sometimes inclosure) was the legal process in England of consolidating (enclosing) small landholdings into larger farms. Once enclosed, use of the land became restricted to the owner, and it ceased to be common land for communal use.” In essence it was class theft benefitting the elites and subjugating the poor.
In America the elites are pushing to remove what has been called ‘America’s greatest idea.’ Film maker ken Burns has beautifully documented the creation of the National Parks system, and the role of leaders, like Teddy Roosevelt, who saw a future of wild lands and restricted use Public Domain. Americans and apparently much of the world (according to visitation records) love America’s open spaces. The industrial cartels and monetarily wealthy elites see only restriction in profits and not the existential wonder of wild lands. A cartoon I have used for many years in my talks shows the fairy tale character Rumplestilkin spinning all of the natural world into gold thread and the caption reads, “Now What?” You might have noticed how I always say the Monetarily Wealthy.” I always want to separate the idea that having lots of money is wealth – In the current context of having money that merely means they are trapped in a part of the illusion, but are still crushed with the problems of life relationships and paranoid about losing their ‘wealth’ even if they currently have all the comforts and luxuries that money can buy. I have often asked whether my students would prefer a million dollars or a room of food. Those new to my style of lecturing usually go for the money. Students who have had me for other classes know the twist I will put in the question. If you are in the middle of a wasteland with no civilization in sight, try eating the illusion of what a million dollars can do for you – good roughage but not much else. Money is the illusion that binds us to the modern system of living. Giving up the public domain (communal land) for an illusion sounds alike insanity to me, but then I’m a sustainability supporter who dreams of a world where a ‘Vision of Love’ binds us together. To show how this system of enclosures has slowly taken away from us what ought to be ours, a little story of mine on hiking in England many years ago.
Many years ago I was with two friends on a hike across the English Moors. The wind was driving a moderate rain across the bleak moor against our backs. There was barely any relief from the rain except for a small rocky outcrop we spotted some 200 yards away from the sodden path we were on. We got to the rocks and found a nice little sheltered alcove formed by big boulders. Some 30 feet away were a couple of sheep huddled in the lea of a big boulder. Glad to be out of the rain for a few minutes we were eating lunch when we noticed a Land Rover pulling up to the base of the moor below us. Up the hill heading straight for us came a short but powerfully-built young man using a pick-axe handle as a walking stick. When he reached us he kept prodding the stick menacingly into the moor while he informed us we were trespassing on ‘Lord Shithole’s land. We politely informed him we were merely taking a respite out of the rain and had no idea that we had somehow moved through an invisible line into his lordships domain (apparently used once a year for Grouse shooting). The Game Keeper (who looked like a battle-hardened warrior) causally pointed out a piece of stick stuck in the moor some 100 awards away. We thanked him for his kindness in informing us of our error and quickly picked up our packs and moved quickly into the rain and across the invisible line back into the public land area, which apparently was just the path (a negotiated right of way since the 1950s) since the whole moorland area belonged to Lord Shithole. I’m not sure if the sheep knew they had been trespassing or if they belonged to his lordship The only farming to be had on a bleak English moor is sheep farming and raising grouse for shooting and the occasional red deer that still survive. The radical enforcement of these kinds of land boundaries underscores the attitude that the monetarily wealthy hold for their stuff and their unwillingness to share what was once upon a time public domain land. People are ingenious and given the need or incentive can find ways to use land that benefits the common good. Whether that be for farming or simple recreation to no use at all should be in the hands of the people for whom the land is a common heritage. Enclosing a piece of land is something indigenous peoples could not understand. Yes, there were boundaries that a group may use for a while as they stewarded the land for their needs, but it was never owned for ever – should a thing was ridiculous. Screen writer Ted Perry in 1971, wrote several ecological scripts (often mistakenly attributed to Chief Seattle). To paraphrase one such piece, You can’t own the land anymore than you own the wind or the rain. (Perry was obviously not familiar with prior appropriation water rights – a policy story in itself that now spans the world.) If big business or elites can find a way they will enclose a natural resource. Maybe a post on water resources next. But first, back to land.
That this new kind of enclosures is in happening in so many LDCs is indicative of how the elites, whether they be the Cabal or simply countries classed as MDCs, need more land to feed themselves. Again, food waste is unbelievable so grabbing land without first exploring other options of food management is yet another symptom of how sick our current system of economics has become. To emphasize the ludicrousness of enclosures on a more personal level. Imagine you and your neighbors have nice organic vegetable gardens that you all lovingly tend. Now imagine a foreign developer sees your gardens, just comes in and puts up a fence to keep you from the garden while he brings in a bulldozer to remove all the flower beds and trees taking up valuable space that industrialized food system could use. You have a right to complain but unfortunately the local authorities are in step with the developer (heck, the developer might even be on the council) and your rights are simply ignored. In much of the industrialized world the local farmer is becoming a rarity as corporate farming systems buy up more land and impose their industrial will on rural populations. How do we resist this onslaught of food control?
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