After several days of a stomach bug and losing ten pounds in forty-eight hours, I’m back on track with my reading and writing. I felt like a zombie and could barely keep a thought in my mind. Next step is to get back on the road and do some running, then tend to my garden. I already have some corn and beans sprouting!
Hopefully everyone had, and will have, a great week.
The right to property was almost universally understood by the Founders but nearly unknown by modern Americans.
“Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.” - John Adams (Discourses on Davila,” 1790)
I mean, what is the purpose of ‘liberty’ if you have no right to what you produce? What exactly are you free to do? Maybe the hippy commune answer to that question would be something like, “Exchange love and spiritual connections.” Which is absolutely important. But there is something missing at the very central nature of our being if we are not innovating. And if we are not allowed to keep the fruits of our labor, then we have no incentive to innovate.
“I always thought the man that made the corn should eat the corn.” - Abraham Lincoln
One particular thing that differentiates human beings from animals is our propensity to see the potential in the world. Whereas an animal will come upon seeds and devour them before another gets the chance, humans have learned to delay gratification and turn those seeds into acres upon acres of food. We think not just about right now, but about the future. No other being does so to the extent we do.
Even squirrels scampering around gathering food for the winter never purposefully turn those seeds into millions of bushels of corn. And neither would they if some other creature constantly stole their produce.
This was the situation for most of history and why many references in the colony refer back to the Crown and its ability to seize property. The split the colonists made was to recognize each individual’s right to, what John Locke referred to as, the fruits of his labor.
Without security in our labor and its fruits, we have no liberty.
“Communism is the abolition of private property.” - Karl Marx
During the protests and riots of 2020, we saw a lot of property destruction but very little empathy from some political leaders. I remember hearing “This is why business owners have insurance.” It was as if there was no intrinsic value in the property beyond just its material reality. This is a grave mistake.
Once we stop recognizing the purpose of property rights, which include not just buildings and lands but anything that a human being produces through his or her labor, we forget what it is that makes us special. We forget what it is that makes us human. We start down the path of dehumanization and the slope away from liberty and towards tyranny.