All life has a common dependency on land, air, water. The use of it is exclusive to no one. There is no birthright to possession with or without the contribution of personal labor. Not even your own labor is exclusively yours if another has the power to compel you to serve him with your labor.
I am a son of the South and among my ancestors were men who owned slaves and never once questioned their right to compel their slaves to serve them for all of their lives and the lives of their children and their children's children. Even their Religion and their Government told them that this was their Birthright to possess at will.
Also among my ancestors were Native Americans who laid claim by birthright to the use of the land of their ancestors. But in the end superior power of the Invaders displaced this Birthright push my ancestor off their land and down the "Trail of Tears" and now modern day American claim it as their right to possess by virtue of Labor.
There is no such right of possession in Nature. It become possible only if the Community [which has power superior to the individual] grants the privilege of possession in return for a tax that is due to the community to provide for the common use of that community. How the Common-share is used is determined by who holds the power of Community. It might be Democratic or Oligarch or Dictatorial, but it exist beyond the power of any single individual to resist.
If the Community decides that a portion of that tax of the Commonshare is to be used for food, shelter, medical-care and skill training for some or all of the Citizen of the Community, the opinion of those who believe it is Philosophically wrong is an opinion of no consequence in the absence of Democratic Response or Armed Rebellion.
It is not your or my Philosophical Opinion that determines Absolute Right. It is the will of those who hold the power to impose their will that determine truth of the moment. It is only the willingness to evolve values by compromise that offers a pathway to change without violence. I for one embrace the privilege to possess wealth as reward for achievement of competition and for the contribution to the common good. I also am of the opinion that a community that guarantees that each and every citizen shall have food, shelter, medical care and education that is not predicated upon the need to satisfy a Bureau for Begging is a stable and productive community.
I am fully satisfied that a modern technological Society can easily do both without a struggle to satisfy the need to be Absolutely Right about the proper Moral Behavior. Our present struggle over who will hold power, leads me directly to consideration of the Society of Lilliputians in Gulliver's Travels. What does it really matter which end of the boiled egg you crack before eating.
Copyright © William Hodge 2012
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