9. The Common Planet
This blog is the 9th and final one of a series that I have released weekly ending in the release of the manifesto on Land & Property.
Where is the 8th? You're right, I've bumped it, it's not finsihed so it's gone for now.
As I said at the start of this series, it is It not the politics of envy to talk about land ownership, its the politics of survival.
In terms of inequality, Land ownership and land use matters, but in terms of the survival of the plant and all species, including humans, it is the most important question of all.
How those who own land matters. It has implications for:
Species collapse
Extracting minerals.
Food security.
Environmental destruction.
Land use is now the most important question in terms of climate catastrophe.
Land and the ownership of land in days gone by may have been concerned with food supply, or farm efficiency. Today, land ownership is even more vital. Ownership and tending to the land well is now a matter of survival for everyone. It is the gravest responsibility, yet as we know, in Capitalism 1.0 The Overclass are driven by greed and profits. The Overclass own most of our land. In many cases its in the hands of the most irresponsible group.
Land ownership means money, money means extraction of value from land, including extraction of minerals and oil or gas. Burning of oil or gas has been, and remains the key source of carbon emissions going into our atmosphere. Those gasses have accelerated any natural warming of the planet that may happen anyway to a level that renders the planet unsustainable for humans within a few short generations.
This statement is backed up and supported by science, scientific research and scientific fact. Yet to The Overclass there is only one thing that's important. And thats money. More money. We cannot let The Overclass, this destroyer of the planet, continue to extract and destroy our children's future. It is us, the Commoners who have a track record over centuries for putting cooperation and community first and in doing so, our species and our planet stands its best chance of survival.
In our lifetime and our children's lifetime we will be faced with catastrophic events that will change how we live as a result of climate change. Water and food shortages. Species collapse. Insect decline and plant pollination problems. Irregular and dangerous weather patterns. Polar caps melting and increases in sea level, loss of land and housing. War, famine, fire, new diseases and pandemics, increased migration of desperate people will all remain challenges we face if we do not take this issue seriously and take back control from The Overclass.
Who Stole The Commons Off The Goose?
Back to the common and the goose
There are 2 laws. The one written down in statue and used to criminalise the commoner. And then there is common law, the one that was in place before. The one which can only be revived by revolution. And a revolution is needed to restore common law and the land to the Commoners. The only real question is whether that revolution can be done with or without violence. At present, The Overclass are choosing to perpetrate violence against the Commoner (legal violence of course), at present, the Commoner has chosen not to become violent in return, which if it happened, would be illegal, of course.
The progress of humanity over the last few hundred years has been immense. But it’s been on the back of the Commoner. Not the entrepreneurial brilliance of The Overclass as our distorted history claims.
This remains true today. Go into a university science lab and you’ll see ordinary men and women with a passion for research in their chosen field and an unpolluted desire to achieve great things. This is the potential for all children being born and we must give them a path to this place if they want. We must unleash the potential within our population but especially within the commoners who are in the many and who will hold the solution to many problems.
Currently the owner of land or property is entitled to own use or destroy that which is his. Unfortunately, The Overclass have deemed the planet to be theirs. And it's our common planet which they are destroying. The rules of our current game, which for this English came into existence in 1066, when we only knew some parts of the world, still believed it was flat or had a sun revolving around it, may need to be altered now that we are aware of it being finite, that animals called humans have destroyed almost every living species and have extracted resources which have greatly increased the warming of the planet.
William Blake, the poet who wrote the words to Jerusalem, foretold this planetary destruction. Blake said:
"They told me that I had five senses to inclose me up, And they inclos'd my infinite brain into a narrow circle, And sunk my heart into the Abyss, a red round globe hot burnin Till all from life I was obliterated and erased."
As we have tweaked our understanding of how flat the world is, or how it goes round a sun, we need to tweak our legal and economic rules so that the ownership of land accounts for the survival of all, not just the short term monetary gain of the few.
We know who needs to do more, who needs to come into the side of the many, The Middle Class, and we know who needs to pay more, The Overclass.
But until they engage. Commoners need to fight. Williams Blake's Jerusalem is a song sung at The Last Night of the Proms. An English nationalistic event of Union Jack waving Christian patriotism. But Blake was a republican. In his time, Jerusalem was a term used to describe communistic cooperation. The words from the song Jerusalem, England's national anthem says:
"I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land."
How can Commoners fight? With words. Written or spoken. Capturing hearts and minds. With votes. Don't vote for any mainstream party. With actions. Protests. Fights if necessary, or even just verbally supporting disrupters. With patience. Yes it's inconvenient to have protesters blocking your school run, but it will be needs to be until we can change things. And if a fight is necessary, lets fight with violence.
"It sounds like a whisper Poor people gonna rise up And get their share Poor people gonna rise up And take what's theirs”
Tracy Chapman ~ Talkin' Bout a Revolution
The end.
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