Mind Your Own

As we rapidly approach the fated date of 2012 our future seems more and more uncertain. What we believe is probable today seemed unfathomable one year ago, and where we find ourselves one year from today may be an even greater challenge to fathom from where we now stand. Our collective march toward this time is like the ascent of a great mountain, not knowing exactly what will be over the mountain top, but hoping it is worth the struggle of the climb. In the coming Sun cycles we will be cresting the great peak, gazing out over our new world that so many have fought and died to help create. And though they are not here with us now they are seeing through our eyes, and all of our ancestors, all of our relations will feel the collective sigh when the light of the new day shines in.

Without knowing it, without understanding it, we have been struggling on this ascent on the colder, darker side of the mountain, and the great valley we are moving to is full of glorious sunlight. In this darkness we have been tricked, robbed, enslaved, and employed by others who preyed on our weaknesses and ignorance. But in this new world there will be no shadows in which to hide, where darkness once reigned light will fill in the world with information, understanding, and with that comes compassion. We will one day look back on the time when we would harm another person to perpetuate a legal fiction as a period of collective insanity, as a society of sociopaths who worshiped false idols. And this light will reveal the nature of one of most basic designs of the universe and our places in it; everything we do is compelled by either love or fear. We may not be able to wipe out fear, but when we understand this base principle we can more accurately assess our behavior and choose our repsponses.

And when we assess our collective behavior we find one consistent concept instilled in our laws and social structure that lies at the heart of nearly every problem we have ever faced. For two thousand years humans have entertained a shared delusion called "property" or "ownership" that has caused more heartache than it could ever hope to amend. We draw imaginary lines between people and things, or places that connect them by claim, yet we are temporal and can only have temporary relationships with places and things. And of course it is the concept of "property" that lies at the heart of slavery, and the abuse of workers. It is "property" that lies at the heart of kingdoms and empires, property causes wars for resources. Property is what makes it possible for someone who has never worked an honest days labor in their entire life to extract the profits (fruits of labor) from those who work the hardest, this in essence is "capitalism".

And this is the ultimate trick that we have been duped into on this cold shadowy mountain side as we slowly march toward the peak. In fact, consider the word "ploy" which is the root of the word "employment", think of this when those who horde the wealth refer to themselves as "job creators." They would rather we think of them as the creator of jobs than to contemplate what that implies, that they necessarily are not the workers of jobs, they aren't doing their share of the work. If the last two thousand years had left us with only brute rule, where we would simply be the slaves of those who could physically dominate us, that would no doubt be a failure of humanity. But for us to be enslaved to those who utilize their brain power is no better, especially considering that they use their brains to subordinate those with the greatest strength to do their bidding and secure their aristocracy by force.

This concept of "property" which is today blatantly defined as a legal fiction, has always been nothing more than a spell of glamour cast by those with great mental prowess over those who wrongfully believe in the benevolence of their lords. Our modern day landlords play a remarkably similar role to the Lord of the land under feudalism, when one must continually pay for the right to a home they are truly enslaved to the masters of employment and housing. Ironically when those with the bulk of the property would like to defend the concept they suggest that property rights prevent someone (or the government) from taking that property away from you. But 99% of the time it actually does exactly the opposite, allowing one who has no need for a home to physically force out those who have no other home. This can be a person who owns multiple houses and chooses to rent out one or more to "tenants", or it can be a legal fiction like a bank or corporation that acquires a mortgage.

And when one suggests that all people have a right to a home and no person needs more than one home, those who have multiple houses claim that being limited to one constitutes theft of their property. This concept of property allows not only for some to have more money (another legal fiction) but also to have as many houses as they desire while others have no house at all to call a home. Property which justified slavery until just 146 years ago also justifies the descendants of slave owners rights to the wealth extracted from the free forced labor of African American slaves over a period of 400 years. While the rich suggest that the poor black descendants of slaves should just "get a job" they themselves don't need jobs for basic needs like food and housing, and in fact can have almost anything they want without performing any labor to earn it. While some are forced to earn every crumb they get, others simply claim rights to the whole cake because they bought it, paid for it, or inherited it, they own it.

While we now see a movement forming to embrace this new world and end our mindless allegiances to false idols and their anti-democratic authorities, we may not understand where we are headed every step of the way. In the statement from the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly we have given our declaration of independence, not from a king but from hierarchy itself. In defining what is wrong with our current system we have also clearly shown what we will not tolerate in the new world we create, just as the authors of the American Declaration of independence described tyrannies in great detail. It is in the same spirit that turned so many honorable men against the king they were programmed to adore and obey, that we stand up against the false idols and legal fictions that demand our adoration and obedience by threat of force. It has never been one nation, one leader, or one flag that can capture the righteous justice that is the essence of democracy, and democracy is the one thing that can unite the world while simultaneously delivering us from the tyranny of central authority and the aristocratic parasite class it creates and sustains.

Allowed to fully flower, true, global, direct democracy will right all unnecessary wrongs if relentlessly pursued. Ownership is chief among those wrongs that democracy can dissolve through following it's natural course. These connections we have with the people, places, and things in our lives are real on some level, but the idea that we can somehow own them will someday be understood as delusion. However, there is a reality to ownership that binds us to our actions, when we are accountable for our mistakes we "own" them, or "own up to" them. It's no surprise that our property laws have allowed for some to claim ownership over people, places, and things, while shielding them from accountability. The wealthy want to own everything in the whole world, except their own mistakes. All hierarchies have firewalls that never allow the heat of discontent to reach those who are responsible for turning up the fire. In modern times all one needs to do is contemplate the concept of "limited liability" at the crux of the corporate/capital model. While the corporate aristocracy extracts the wealth from industry, none pay any price for criminal negligence, even when it results in the destruction of many innocent lives.

Needless to say, Jesus the man would be leading the marches on Wall St. against the imperial guards of the aristocratic ruling class. Jesus was there in the beginning of this magic spell called property, though empires had ruled for eons they had done so by brute force. But the intellectual activity that was percolating around the banks of the Mediterranean Sea began to give us complex ideas about currency and ownership, buying and selling and loaning monies. The money changers that Jesus assaulted in the temple were the predecessors to our modern day bankers who were developing ways to create wealth from wealth so that they may spare themselves a life of hard labor. Taxes and usury were imposed by those who had wealth against those who had none, a design that always inevitably leads to the enslavement of one class to another. From the Greeks to the Romans to the Jews this concept of ownership was hashed out in such a way that created and sustained an aristocracy that would continue until today. The movement of the 99% may not know it yet, but they have started something that will eventually slay this 2,000 year old beast once and for all.