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Private property and personal liberty are not the same thing – Daily Montanan [1]

['More From Author', 'August', 'Sarah Mcclain']

Date: 2022-08-10  

Kendall Cotton, in his article in the Missoulian of July 5, “U.S.—Made Possible by Private Property,” states: “What makes America special is that our system is deeply rooted in the concept that property rights and individual rights are inseparable” and that this confluence is what has made our country what it is today.

How did this miracle happen in the case of the United States? How did settlers, coming over on ships, amass all this private property with its attendant freedoms?

First, they/we took over communally held land and killed or dispossessed the indigenous peoples who subsisted on the plants, animals and water without changing the climate or exhausting the resources. That system, which had endured for thousands and thousands of years was replaced by a model wherein one person owned a large piece of land by himself, land on which he could cultivate a single crop, like cotton or tobacco, and have the labor done by slaves, who did not even own their own bodies. To their “owners,” they were property.

So, not so much of a miracle and not so much freedom for the unfortunate many who didn’t “own property.” If the right to own property gives one the right to speak, then effectively, not owning property reduces that right. Private property, then, is an expression of power.

This is happening all over the world, here and in Indonesia, for instance, where “15 million acres of rainforest were destroyed for palm oil cultivation between 2000 and 2012.” This has the effect of evicting the indigenous, who subsist in the rainforest without papers to prove their legal right to do so, burning and clearing the forest along with all the animals, depleting the water-table so fish cannot live and feed people, while, in exchange, offering the opportunity for hard work at low wages in bad conditions, thus “creating jobs,” according to Bee Wilson’s reporting in the London Review of Books on June 23.

When we talk about private property, we don’t mean a person’s toothbrush, car or house, which are “personal property.” It refers to more extensive ownership for personal benefit rather than being owned by the government for the benefit of the citizens or being owned by a co-op for the benefit of a community of people.

Let’s look at the example of the giant diamond found recently in Angola. It is to be sold by the state-owned diamond firm “Sodiam” (Missoulian, July 31). If this firm follows the example of other nationally-owned entities, the proceeds will be used for capitalization of the business and also for the good of the people of the country. And shouldn’t this be the way to go, especially when it comes to mines? How can one person say that this is his alone?

I agree with Kendall Cotton in his emphasis on the vital importance of everyone owning her own body. He references James Madison on the right to self-ownership meaning that “each person had unalienable rights given to them by God – rights that no government could ever revoke.” If only that were true! Remember the Supreme Court of the United States has just ruled that women cannot fully own their own bodies and minds.

Let’s not confuse private property with democracy and human rights. They are antithetical.

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