From ownership to possession to domination
Perhaps it is time we consider what ownership is. It is mine. I paid for it. I worked hard for it. It is mine by law.
What can we own? Can we own land and be enabled to do with that land whatever we want?
Can we own animals? Again with unlimited licence to use as we please?
Can we own humans? Slavery says yes. Modern slavery has used the law to enable a work-around that captures people in an endless cycle of exploitation and limited optionality. Now. Everyday. All around us.
When someone pays for a service from another human, do they own that service?
The step from ownership to possession to domination is not a giant leap. The seed of the little atrocity lies in the first impulse of ownership.
The implied hubris of ownership and procession comes without any responsibility for long-term care and consequence management.
If we are a steward or parents, of land, animals, children and our future, would this change how we tend to what we have been gifted to steward?
Stewardship, a way of being known well to indigenous communities, takes the position that it was never ours to own. Everything is a part of the whole. What we do here affects there. How we care creates greater syntropy, or more entropy.
Stewardship is a way of being to all things. If we own land, the least we can do is be wise stewards. If we own a business, is it ours, or do we steward it to support the increased well-being of all?
Photo Taken July 30th 2023
