The Myth of Private Property
As the father of anarchism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, proclaimed in What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government:
“Such an author teaches that property is a civil right, born of occupation and sanctioned by law; another maintains that it is a natural right, originating in labor, — and both of these doctrines, totally opposed as they may seem, are encouraged and applauded. I contend that neither labor, nor occupation, nor law, can create property; that it is an effect without a cause: am I censurable?
But murmurs arise!
Property is theft! That is the war-cry of ’93! That is the signal of revolutions!”
This notion of private property is not one which has been around forever, as capitalists would have us think. That a person or a group of people can own land and accumulate wealth to be passed down for generations is contrary to human nature; for to lay claim to communally produced items, resources or places of habitation contradicts the idea of community. So, allow me to take you along the path of privatization of owning property.
Common property, subject to common ownership has, in some ways, been the norm. For citizens to utilize land for growing crops, grazing cattle, as well as housing and natural resources. For a community to benefit from what is accessible to all and one that can be called a gifted economy. One in which items are freely given with no expectation of immediate ‘payment’ or exchange, as opposed to a barter system in which something is given in exchange for something else in that moment.
This definition of ‘property’ and how it was utilized was open to everyone. In nomadic societies this was, one can extrapolate, common practice, so to speak. Therefore, one can even say that common property and ownership can be regarded as early forms of communism.
Collective ownership of property, herein referred to as collective property, is a bit more along the path of private property. In this particular system, it comes down to a particular collective, or group of individuals, setting up a farm, or the means of production limited to that particular group. Thus it contrasts the earlier to the aforementioned inclusive system of common ownership. In this system, not all are welcome to the goods, services and even the benefits of ‘owning’ said results. A political and economic system which can be linked to the concept of collective ownership is socialism; Aptly named after a society, and not just the commons; Or everyone.
There isn’t an exact date for one to pinpoint the rising of private ownership of what is considered to be private property. Certainly the ancient Greeks like Aristotle considered the idea of private ownership as fostering values of prudence and responsibility. To speculate a bit, we could say that private ownership arose with the inception of the City State, as best theorized by Hume, who himself posited that there was no natural ‘mine’ or ‘thine’.
The demarcation of lands for the collective usage of the citizen, with their own homesteads, as allocated by the ruling class, who themselves in turn lay claim to other goods the general public may not have had access to. John Locke, for instance, was of the mind that the individual could come about the privatization of land and its resources through manual labour.
Under this land ownership, people were protected by laws which insured their borders were secured. Within these borders, they could grow crops and keep animals for food or to sell as they saw fit. As these lands owned by people grew in size, mainly through acquisition and purchase in the form of currency or even less reputable means, there arose the need for workers to till the land and make a small profit out of it. Under this particular economic determination, there arose a more heavily structured market which allowed for trading routes and the pricing of goods not readily available to land-owners, governments and States in their various forms.
We can safely say that as some people accrued more wealth and land, others were not able to do so to the same extent. Poverty thus arose as a symptom of a much greater problem here, which is private property in consolidation of wealth. A person could get land, and through laws and mandates pass it on to their successors in perpetuity, unless seized by the State. Those without land and without goods were left in squalor and destitute. Food became scarce and there arose a structured social hierarchy.
The Industrial Revolution came in the middle of the 18th Century and didn't do much for such inequality. The means of production were seized by a few corporations and privatized. They were to produce the materials required for the alleged advancement of society and civilization; They got to set the prices for various goods and services, amongst other things. Surely, it could be said that living standards were raised, as did life expectancy; Though with the inception of Capitalism came the concept of wage labour and long work hours. In this regard, companies and industrialists got to decide how much a person’s physical work was worth. There arose syndicates to fight for rights, but in a system which puts little value on the lives of the people, they regard each and every one as replaceable. The titles of lords and nobles were replaced by bosses and supervisors. No longer was one to pay homage to a Tudor or a Habsburg, but to the CEOs and magnates of large multinationals which moved more wealth than any king had in centuries past.The masses in turn were appeased with everyday comforts and many within the middle class, when it still existed to some degree were able to have access to imported goods like various non-native fruits, legumes, vehicles, textiles and so forth. One could even say that advertising became even more central to the rising culture of consumerism. Acquire the latest trendy object to be accepted within society. Eat these foods with little regard to your own health.
Amongst the rising of cities around factories and such, there came an even higher number of people by square foot. People seeking work or new livelihood continued, through the decades to travel and settle elsewhere with their families. More efficient and larger boats, and later on planes would come about. It cannot be denied that inventions such as these allowed for mobilization and the normalization of intercontinental mobility, but not upward mobility. Whereas the rich and ever growing super-rich could afford various places of residence and the finest clothing, the average working person could afford maybe a quarter of that, but it was once more sold to them as it being the natural order of things. Chief amongst these myths was that of the American Dream. The fantastical belief of being able to do better for oneself and acquire even greater financial solvency and more marked distinction only if one were to work harder. It was chiefly attainable for the more privileged classes, who through inherited wealth kept that wealth from generation to generation and expanded on it more and more.
Still immigrants were disenfranchised, taking into account black people and those of African descent still heavily discriminated against. The thought of granting equal rights to black individuals seemed ludicrous for centuries, and a war in the U.S was waged over the right to own people. Racism was always a part of this nation, and it continues being to this day. The history of displacement and commodification of peoples is one which we aren’t strangers to even to this day. Where many Americans were granted rights to vote, amongst other things, these groups remained disenfranchised. With earlier expansions in territory came even more massacres of Indigenous populations, allowing them to remain in extreme poverty and penury.
If there was a decrease in the economy or people’s way of life, propaganda machines made sure to blame the other again and again. Foreigners, chiefly of all. This would later be seen in Nazi Germany, with the demonization of Jewish populations, enacting a pogrom which would end millions of lives, forcing many to flee. Capitalist nations and large States require for the populace to be ever on the look-out for their own self-interest, as well as that of Capital.
Clearly, a whole article could be dedicated to how such populations have been affected by these incidents. From wars waged abroad against Communist nations and its people, to the privatization and increased funding of the military industrial complex to generate a new form of Imperialism by seizing new lands and resources to benefit an already wealthy nation.
I would be remiss to touch upon the environmental impact of the monster of Capitalism. As the expansion of humans goes on, countless animal and plant species have disappeared to make way for crops and the mass-breeding of cattle, amongst other ‘farm’ animals like pigs, chickens, turkeys and even fish. We have seen forests set aflame and the rising temperature which has caused rising ocean levels and the death of marine biomes. We’ve also witnessed the slaughter of whales, dolphins and other marine animals for their skins and body parts. Never have we humans behaved like such an invasive and destructive species.
Thus billions of sentient animals are slaughtered every year inside massive warehouses owned by the very industrialists mentioned before. They are able to continue with such an enterprise mainly due to governmental assistance and subsidies. We have been sold the idea that they must die so that we can continue to live. Privatization of bodies occurred and continues to occur. Alterations to their genetic structure lets us see that they’re treated like any other crop. They aren’t killed; They’re ‘harvested’. In the egg industry, male chicks are ground up because they’re not profitable. Spent cows who cannot produce milk are summarily killed. Machines do this for us; The monsters we created in the hopes of improving human life. People are adversely impacted. Mainly the working poor; immigrants and those who have little access to any other line of work. Abattoirs and factory farms affect poor communities. Fumes and polluted water cause a plethora of health problems; And the injection of drugs and antibiotics to keep animals healthy and make them grow twice the size found in nature makes them noxious to our health, yet we’re fooled into believing that we must eat them.
Never could our ancestors have imagined we would come to this. To our rights being policed, and the lives of both humans and non-human animals being regarded as simple numbers; to profit and capital to be presented in Wall Street as diagrams and graphs. To penal systems sending prisoners to private prisons where they’re forced to work without any kind of remuneration of any kind. We are spiraling faster and faster until we burn out like so many civilizations before us.
Private ownership is a plague, and Capitalism its progenitor.