What Is Ownership?

  

“Nonsense. What is stopping you from owning property? You're exaggerating like you always do. Sure, there's favoritism sometimes. But to pretend this hasn't always existed is naive.”   

According to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary “own” is described as:   

1) to have or hold as property 

2) to have power or mastery over   

I understand this to mean that true ownership of property is complete and unconditional. It is not subject to the arbitrary whims of a group of men and women with guns. When a monopoly on initiated aggression has a higher claim on my life and property then there is no such thing as true ownership. If I must obtain State permission to make an addition to my home, I am not free. If I must pay a tithe to the State to live in my home, I am merely renting my home from the State. In the world of Statism, true ownership is a myth. When we dispense with the notion that some people have a moral right to boss other people around and take their stuff, then we will know a truly voluntary world where all forms of coercion are rightfully condemned.    

To state that something must exist because it has “always existed” is an appeal to antiquity. It is wretched justification for untold misery and suffering. Chain slavery was part of human life for centuries until it wasn’t. Using horses for transportation was part of human life for millennia until it wasn’t. People communicated using primarily ink and paper for millennia until it wasn’t. The ignoble assertion that what exists must exist because “we have always done it this way” is the abandonment of critical thinking and the dangerous path towards the most brutal atrocities.    

Progress is by its very nature unprecedented. Do not confine your thinking to what already is, but rather expand it outward to the cosmos to that which is yet to be discovered and invented. Every gorgeous invention and wondrous creation was first the thought of an intrepid visionary. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  

My name is Danilo Cuellar. Follow me at Peaceful Anarchism. I also run the Peaceful Anarchism Facebook page and produce many YouTube videos. You can support and donate to my work through Patreon or PayPal. I’m a practitioner of Eastern Healing arts with degrees in Acupuncture and Chinese medicinal herbs, I have always questioned the status quo, a path which led me to peaceful anarchism. Through my journey, I have worn many hats, that of a classical pianist, avid chess player, philosopher, comedian, and now father of two little anarchists. My wife brands me as a Cultural Critic, but I am simply following my thirst for knowledge and passion for writing.