Is the right to ownership part of a human mindset that stems from the need to control? I think there’s a strong connection.
What lies beneath this need to control?
It seems that through the idea of control, everything will be where it’s supposed to be, fixed in its place and through that medium everything will be well.
More ownership = more control = more stability.
Think back to colonization; the Roman Empire, or the British Empire. When the British colonized South Africa they told its people to pay a tax to live on “their” land. But the local people didn’t have money to pay these taxes, they had only cows. So they instructed them to work in the mines to earn the money to pay the taxes.
Ownership of gold, property and taxes ensued for the British Empire. This was seen as the primary way to get the local people into the money system to drive economic growth.
Today, although slavery has been abolished, we still have financial institutions, governments, mining companies and other systems trying to control their respective environments through ownership.
They set out to grow exponentially by monetizing what yet hasn’t been monetized through the inherent belief or need to own.
This equates into the separate self sense and the right to take or destroy for ownership or gain.
Going back to the question: what lies beneath this idea of control? I believe at the core of it lies scarcity. The beliefs and assumptions of the systems - political, cultural, financial, personal systems that have been embedded in societies from pre-industrial times that everything is limited therefore one must own that limit in order to be safe.
Perhaps the change we now require needs to begin with self. Change yourself, and your friends, community, country and world will follow. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
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