" I always found it to be the expression of an attitude of freedom from a dictatorship of "things." "
Wow, Fran ! I see the mystery of mastery in this expression of yours. Greatly liberating. The freedom you speak of is an attainment. However, untill it happens, as a clear realisation and principle feature in our value - system, we are allowed to see our value in " things," to indulge in and be dictated by them. The latter is the first cause of most of our problems, historical and existential, but it pre - exists and pre - dominates, and makes our socio - politico - economic world go around. Yes, who would believe, our worldly order is found on an absence ... of the " attitude of freedom from a dictatorship of "things." !" On Jul 28, 10:02 pm, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > In the course of the recent discussion here concerning the reposting > of Minds Eye contributions in other internet fora, the question of > copyright arose. It got me to thinking about the idea of intellectual > ownership and the idea of possession in general. > > We have all seen the Westerns in which the Native Americans sold away > title to land for nothing, or pittances because the white man's > concept of "owning" land was incomprehensible to them. Throughout > history, many of those whom we regard as great thinkers have been very > critical of the benefits of possessions and owning things. Indeed, a > controversy centred on the absolute poverty of Christ raged throughout > the medieval Christian Church and completely split the Franciscan > movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ > Franciscans#Renewed_controversy_on_the_question_of_poverty). In this > context, it is perhaps interesting to note that one of the all-time > heroes here on Minds Eye, William of Occam, was a proponent of the > principle of absolute poverty and lost his job as English Franciscan > provincial and was excommunicated as a result. > > Personally I spent almost a decade as a Dominican friar, during which > time I took a "vow of poverty." I don't want to go into a discussion > on the extent to which Catholic monks actually live according to this > vow here, personally, I always found it to be the expression of an > attitude of freedom from a dictatorship of "things." It may also have > left an indelible mark on me in that in almost a quarter of a century > since leaving the order I have been pretty bad at earning, > accumulating and retaining material wealth and possessions. During my > life I have gone through a number of pretty radical changes, which > have often involved leaving nearly everything behind and starting > again. Such processes have been, inevitably, traumatic, although not > necessarily negative. One of the things that has helped is the fact > that I have never felt particularly attached to "things". But maybe my > sense of "ownership" is just underdeveloped, or damaged! > > There's a German saying which states that "he who has possessions has > worries." Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, one of the founders (!) of modern > anarchism went farther with his statement that "property is theft." > What does it mean to "own" something anyway? > > To use Molly's words: What do you think? > > Francis --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
