The English enclosures captured more than land: they also captured our essential drive to care for and nourish our social circle. That, as a system, continues to this day.
We don’t just feed ourselves individually, we feed our social circle. We don’t just nurse and take care of ourselves individually, we nurse and take care of our social circle. We don’t just hug and caress for our individual benefit, we hug and caress for the health of our social circle. That is what we do as social animals and that is what has made us as successful as we are: we have survived and thrived because of our social circle, not as individuals. While remaining individuals.
That is what the European enclosures captured, along with the land. The “excess labor” that we naturally do for our social circle was now in the hands of legal owners.
Prejudice is older than this age. … Among men, however, dissimilarity of minds is a more potent factor in causing prejudice than unlikeness in physiognomy.
Dr Charles Henry Turner (1867–1923) ∇
Dissimilarity
Our ability to detect dissimilarity was the lever and all we had to do was find the rock to leverage it on. Once you are ready to distrust and fear the people on the other side of the line, them people, anything serves. Well dressed people, riding horses, wielding weapons were obviously on one side and the raggedy, bare foot, weaponless mob were on the other.
This ability to make up stories about the dissimilar, older than this age, were the rock that we could leverage on. This was a very powerful innovation, heart-felt on both sides of the line.
Worse, we can’t fight it. The dissimilarity line story has been in our minds for a long time and we would exhaust ourselves trying to fight it.
Co-Ownership
The dissimilarity line is a story for division and exploitation. Co-ownership is our story for going forward.
Co-ownership leverages our drive to care for and nourish our social circle, too. But, co-ownership is not exploitative, it welcomes everybody and their contributions. Instead of dividing us, it makes us all co-owners based on our contributions and puts ownership in our hands.
Co-ownership is a powerful innovation for going forward.
ENDNOTES
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Dr Turner was a scientist and a civil rights leader. As per Wikipedia, Besides his scientific work, Turner was active in the struggle to obtain social and educational services for African Americans in St. Louis, Missouri. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Henry_Turner_(zoologist)>
