This Land is Our Land and the Idea of Dominion by ~ Oscar Bearinger

This Land is Our Land and the Idea of Dominion
by: Oscar Bearinger

	Is there really a possibility of owning a piece of real estate, actually having title forever and forever, to all your children and heirs, eternally? If not, then where does the line fall between owning and forever?
This sign of the Renfrew County Private Landowners Association, rather ubiquitous around the county these days, is a compelling enough sign, with its black and white assurance, stating the infallible truth. Yet we soon come to the neurotic clinch, the interminable impasse between the desire and the taboo: "Back Off, Government!" This seems rather like the addict telling himself to stop drinking. Who is this government, besides the sanction that authorizes "all land" as "our land?" We survive in this poor county (rich in spirit and in history!) in this wealthy country with the freedom to do pretty much anything within reason because, in part, of an endless bureaucracy we call "the government." The very fact of this sign by the country roadside and the sanction that a person can in fact "own" property is due to this very political organization we call "government" (and attendant rules and regulations!!) If the government would indeed "back off" we would no longer have the structure that facilitates land ownership at all. This is the embedded fallacy of the sign. Let me offer a few larger questions before coming back to the sign itself. Who is the government? Who is able to govern? And a more workable question might be: how can we govern ourselves? how can we govern ourselves better? To go just a little further with this sign, certainly a symbol, if one among many, for this community, can we see within the message the temper of a slightly alienated rural dweller who feels some oppression from the predominately urban decision-makers in government? One small example of this has been the controversy over food regulations at farmers' markets in the last two years. It appears that Public Health, the great sanctioned organization of the medical establishment, in its omnipotent wisdom, decreed that farmers making a little additional cash by selling food at farmers' markets didn’t have the proper number of sinks in the kitchens of their houses, and so on. Hierarchically organized systems of knowledge are hard of hearing, they weigh down (even under their own burden of knowledge.) It was the common sense revolt of farmers and people interested in buying local, fresh food that caused the Ontario government in this case to back down and allow reasonable markets for farmers.

Links:

This Land is Our Land
& the Idea of Dominion

Oscar Bearinger

Wordless Box

The Darkened Current of How Things Are

Stephen Jenkinson

Diggin' it in the Valley

Chris Hinsperger

More on Taxes

by: Deedee Sanderson

Winter

Don't Miss the Beauty
of Fall into Spring

Doug De La Matter

Spring Peeping on the Mountain

Laurie Stephenson

	This underlying alienation factor in public life between urban dwellers and a sparse rural population will be around for a long time. We need the countryside, but is it just a resource to exploit to provide for the masses of population that live in the urban high-density environment? To come back to the sign itself: it speaks to a real and valid concern. However, it seems mis-directed. The issue is perhaps (I suggest) about the "quality" of governing, and how to govern more inclusively, democratically, and involving all the people, particularly the workers themselves. I am using the word "dominion" in its meaning of "the right to possession," and I would leave you with a larger question of dominion, by suggesting a new text for this sign: "Land belongs to no one. We humans are simply its stewards and caretakers. Let us do this care taking of land a little better."

	Oscar Bearinger is a poet and works in printmaking and sculpture. He has published poetry as well as studies in psychology and creativity as part of a clinical career in Gestalt and art therapy. Philosophy is a natural connection with this artistic and therapeutic work. Oscar writes in the general field of human studies and the fine arts, combining thought and practice.

Home	About	Archives	Contributors	Contact

deesigns