Naboth’s vineyard

Abstract

There is a case to be made for common property as opposed to private. We have property in common: there is traditional knowledge, the air we breathe, the roads, streets, and sidewalks, the parks, and the beaches —sometimes. In some cultures the land was common property, more or less.

      But private property was a fact of life even among the Incas and the Mexicans because the two concepts interact. It is also true that we own property and we share it at the same time. In the case of land, the sense of property is probably an instinct; the territorial imperative, which shows us that even common property is not common to all. This is our country but it is cut into pieces belonging to different people, and the social order demands that this arrangement be respected. Its violation always has dire consequences. Owning some-thing gives us a sense of security and there is nothing more threatening to our security than inroads into our property, especially when we have endeavored to acquire it; when it was not inherited.