I don't know if it is because I was raised in a non-materialistic environment or what, but it seems that I have become quite accomplished at owning very little. As long as life's necessities are covered, the lack of ownership can be very acceptible unless one has an overpowering need for travel, entertainment or playthings. With ownership comes the responsibility to manage and maintain these possessions and, unless one has a possessions manager, this can be worrisome and time consuming.
I feel that if one owns something, and can live without it, they should be free to enjoy it. If they cannot live without it, ownership can be very stressful. In my personal experience, anything that I have ever "owned" was freely shared with others. The need for ownership seems to be prevalent among the needy minded or insecure. For example, on the "First 48" show the other day, the lead homicide detective referred to the person who had been murdered as "my victim". Pesonally, I would think that if ownership of the victim were allotted to anyone, it would be family members. I think it would be safe to say that the person who said this is dwarfed by insecurity and/ or carried away by a need to reinforce his position of power. In our history, defending and acquiring ownership of territory, food, and assets has caused wars, famine and crime. Possess to your hearts content I say, as long as your need for ownership doesn't own you. On Jul 28, 1:02 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
