In the first story, people treat the proceeds of their labour as their property and the things of the world (i.e. everything created by God) as things that can be turned into property. The introduction of private property is fundamental to the functioning of human society, and working with labour and material things is a fundamental factor in sustaining modern society.
In the second story, people realise that when property is not properly protected, it can be plundered by invaders. When people have been stripped of almost everything, including their children, their language and their land, the only property they cannot give up is their land. While land is seen by the invaders as mere capital or natural resources, to the local people it represents not only property but also identity and an ancestral home, the source of meaning that supports their existence, which is precisely their most valuable possession.
In the subMedia video, property is thought of as a legal concept used as a means of dividing ownership and control. Its rules are so ingrained in the fabric of our everyday lives that it is easy to forget that they are fluid and changeable and that they have taken many different forms throughout human history.(subMedia, 2023)
The stories of Locke and Kimmerer represent the course of society, as society evolves the concept of property shifts from Locke's view to Kimmerer's view. In Locke's story, property is seen as something given by God, something that people have the right to acquire, something that is the result of their labour, whereas in Kimmerer's story, property is given more meaning, the common land and common culture that people live on gives them a sense of identity, and land and property become a source of meaning that sustains them.
In the subMedia video, Locke's story is given more meaning, and the oversimplified, superficial definition of property in Locke is linked to more symbolic meanings when one analyses the meaning of property in depth.
Telling the story of property is important because property provides the owner with legal ownership of resources, and in today's world all property is protected by law and government. It is when people realise the importance of property that the laws relating to property are improved and that property is protected. As the three stories illustrate, property has evolved from being superficially associated with the proceeds of labour to being given a variety of special meanings and presented in a variety of ways, documenting how property has been thought about and how the system has improved.
subMedia, Sub. media. (2023, April 25). What is property?. SUB.MEDIA. https://sub.media/what-is-property/
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