Freedom has ever been measured by ownership, whether of land, personal autonomy, influence and of course possessions, animal, mineral and familial. The rub being that from the very beginnings of time space has been claimed unilaterally by others, through superior prestige, position, power, conquest, a feat accomplished as simply as by pointing in a general direction and stating, ‘all of that is mine’. That lands so invested were often previously occupied by more transitory peoples, a situation inclined to make such land grabs unfortunately easy, the new possessors ensuring to immediately write rules, laws, edicts, to protect and if necessary hold such stolen leagues and acres by force of arms. This base but irregular concept applies to much of so called Eastern and Western civilization, from the first jaunt beyond the caves to this day. In truth no one holds title to any property, all is subterfuge, invention, legal nonsense, giving title to the often underserving and grossly inept.
March 17th is a particularly appropriate day for discussing displacement, forced repatriation, legal and authoritarian oppression, being as it is Saint Patrick’s Day, Patron saint of the Irish Peoples, and as good a time as any to commiserate a peoples forced removal from their indigenous home. That particular history is of course in the realms of time comparatively recent, and has much more to do with the religious conflicts emanating from the European Thirty years war of 1618 to 1648 that any superseding colonial and commercial considerations. Indeed one might suggest that the present success of the United States has as much to do with the forced repatriation of Irish, Italian, and extreme protestant fundamentalists as any other singular circumstance. Fascinatingly, a mass migration that in due course resulted in a cruel, semi elimination, a holocaust by any other name, of the previous inhabitants by European expansion in to the American continent.
History is conveniently appraised to suit the moment, to condemn and praise exactly similar events according to current conventions, localized consequence.
Daily Abstract Thoughts 