Rancor News: My Property? My Land? My Life?
One Christmas I came running down stairs elated with the high only a child can experience with the promise of gifts. Immediately, one thing caught my eye. It was just my size and far too small to be useful to anyone else in my family and far too large to wrap. It was a brand new Huffy bike with a radio. For all intensive purposes, it was my first car. I could see myself riding all over town with my little boombox tweeting full blast, bobbing my head and doing wheelies. I didn't even open my other presents before I had it out the door and began cruising down the street through puddles of slush. It was the beginning of a new era in my life. I could finally get around in style without kids making fun of me. I had no idea that this new era was destined to be short lived. On the first day back to school I pumped my little bike down the road through the typical mild Texas “winter.” I showed the bike to everyone I could before school and told all my classmates about my awesome radio. After school everyone who wasn't riding the bus was excited to check out my new luxury wheels. When the bell rang my bag was packed and I hustled outside with a pack of soon to be jealous, jealous friends. It was gone. I checked every single bike rack methodically even though I knew exactly where I had left it. My friends consoled me and went on their way. I walked home through what might have been the only cold Texas “winter” afternoon.
Do I still own that bike? If I had some way of finding and proving it was bought and given to me on that Christmas long ago I guess I could have it returned to my possession. Did I ever really own it? What about the kid who ended up riding it around far longer than the two weeks I did? Did he own it?
There is a phrase, “Possession is 9/10ths of the law.” That is patently false. Possession is the entirety of the law. The recent controversy over the Arizona law has stirred up old complaints that the territory was stolen from Mexico. Helen Thomas just found herself in forced retirement because of her comments about Jews occupying Palestine and her assertion that they should go back to Germany or Poland where they came from. These controversies and claims revolve around one false assertion. People own things.
Legally, to this day I “own” my stolen bike. There is no realistic way for me to locate it and recover it, but if that were possible, under the law, I own the bike. I own this bike because the state, and/or government allows and provides me that right. The state and/or government does not however, have the ability or resources to re-establish my possession of the bike nor did it thwart the taking of the bike. Ownership is an idea imposed by an authority with limited resources. Does my ownership of the bike matter if it is not in my possession? In this case it is obvious that ownership only exists in theory. Don't get me wrong, property rights are one of the greatest advancements civilization has created but property rights only exist as long as there is an entity strong enough to enforce them. Property rights are only given by an authority with the power to possess the property in question.
Now let’s get into the nitty gritty.
To dispel the myth that we stole land from Mexico, we must establish ownership. To establish ownership there must be a state or an authority capable of maintaining and enforcing that property right. I assume it is clear to everyone that Mexico has been proven incapable of maintaining and enforcing that property right. Since Mexico has been proven incapable of that, there is no claim. Why do some Mexicans claim the land was stolen then? Well it seems the only logical answer is that they were here before us. Unfortunately for them, that claim is even weaker than the first. That land was once occupied by Native Americans. If Mexico asserts that we stole the land because they were here first, they also must assert that they stole it from the Native Americans. The claim is ignorant and fallacious.
The Native American plight is a popular sob story in modern culture. They were the first ones here. Did we steal land from them? I track back to the first argument against Mexican ownership. Ownership only exists when there is an authority strong enough to maintain and enforce property rights. To my understanding, Native Americans didn't even develop the concept of owning land. History has proven that even if they did, they were not able to maintain possession of that land therefore there cannot be any further claim to property rights.
Now before everyone gets upset and starts name calling and declaring I am a racist, Americans are in the same boat. If someone bigger and stronger comes along and sweeps us aside, we have no claim to the land. Ownership is once again, a machination of the state, or government, and possession is the ultimate law. We would have no more claim to the land than I would to Geatland if my ancestor was Beowulf.
This leads us to the endless struggle between Israel and Palestine. It is very simple. He who controls the land does just that. Does Israel own that territory? Ultimately, no. Do they possess the land? Yes, and that is all that matters for the time being.
The Israel-Palestine conflict really interests me because it has such a long heritage. We have divided ourselves up into nationalities and waged war on every race, creed, and color. The irony is we are all human. Whether you believe God, Allah, or Yahweh created the earth a few thousand years ago or you believe we evolved over billions of years, or whether we are re-incarnated over and over again we all trace back to one line of heritage. It is farcical that these people have waged war for so long when the only real reason to disagree is beliefs. Much of the world is composed of beliefs different than Islam and Judaism but these groups fight like hell over a small territory. Israel is a significant place to Jewish believers but this place was settled at some point. The same holds true for Palestine. Before that temple or mosque was built did their religions not exist? If so, their religions are baseless or confused. If the site is not pertinent to their religion then is it really worth over a thousand years of war?
Finally, I want to address something really sensitive. Freedom. It isn't a right. In this world there are no rights at all. Rights are a gift from someone with the authority and power to provide them. Like property rights, that are most often provided by the state, and/or government, the same goes for freedom. There are more slaves in the world today than at any point in history. That stat is skewed because the world is more populous than ever before but it is still something to think about. In America we think we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Some even get wild and claim the right to health care. These ideas are all machinations of government. There are millions of slaves who wonder where their right to freedom is. I love life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I would never object to those “rights” being provided.
This is what I want you to take away from all this. You can't steal what can't be owned or have a right to something that isn't protected. No one owns anything, we merely possess and control things. Ownership and rights are a concept instituted by an authority and they only exists as long as that authority can enforce and maintain them.
Think about this when you go to sleep tonight.
Tyson Bam
