Humans have this insatiable desire to own. We have this craze to own the biggest house, most luxurious cars, and costly jewelry to name a few. This need to own things is not limited to just humans, it has crossed individual boundaries. Now it’s the groups, trusts, State and Countries which want to own more and more land. If owning is not a possibility, we try to atleast control it with hugely complex systems of understanding and diplomatic manipulations.I am not saying I am a saint and have no such cravings. I also want all the materialistic benefits I can get. I would love to get my woman all the expensive materialistic things. For some reason I value other non-materialistic things we humans can give each other. The love, companionship, trust and other such intangible stuff we give each other is worth a lot than the value attributed to them.
I read sometime back about the fight on the ownership of North Pole. Strange I always thought South Pole and North Pole is not part of any country they are international territory. Now I know that there is a dispute on its ownership. I always thought the disputes were for things like oil lands like Iraq, strategic place like Afghanistan, and historic significance like Israel. The war on North Pole’s ownership is due to the possible resources that may be under South / North poles. The strongest get to become stronger, world’s Monopoly game is in full swing in some place I did not even consider before.
If we look back in our history, Mongols, Turks and then Europeans defeated Indians for the land, Americans / Europeans made Africans slaves in the quest for land, the Native Indians of North and South America massacred for land by the European settlers. It does not stop at this for the sake of land multiple generations of children (Stolen generation) separated from their parents – Aborigines in Australia. Will this ever stop? NO WAY. As long as the quest for owning exists in humans these atrocities by one group on another will flourish. What does it really mean to "own" land? Why is it that every culture, allow a person to draw lines and then have almost complete control over what goes on inside those boundaries? What are the advantages, the disadvantages, and the alternatives? How might a humane and sustainable culture re-invent the "ownership" connection between people and the land? Our sense of "land ownership" is embedded deep in our fundamental cultural assumptions that we never stop to consider its implications or alternatives. Most people are at best only aware of two choices - private ownership (Democracy) and state ownership (Communism). Both of these patterns are full of problems and paradoxes. So where is the third alternative?
