#ianangus — Public Fediverse posts

Holy cow, Gerrad Winstanley wrote this in 1652!

Surely then, oppressing lords of manors, exacting landlords, and tithe-takers, may as well say, their brethren shall not breathe in the air, nor enjoy warmth in their bodies, nor have the moist waters to fall upon them in showers, unless they will pay them rent for it: as to say, their brethren shall not work upon earth, nor eat the fruits thereof, unless they will hire that liberty of them. For he that takes upon him to restrain his brother from the liberty of the one, may upon the same ground restrain him from the liberty of all four; viz. fire, water, earth, and air.

A man had better to have had no body, than to have no food for it; therefore this restraining of the earth from brethren by brethren, is oppression and bondage; but the free enjoyment thereof is true freedom.

Gerrard Winstanley, quoted in Ian Angus. The War Against the Commons

#GerrardWinstanley #IanAngus #Commons #Commonism #Diggers #Capitalism #Anarchism

'The privatization of land has been justly described as “perhaps the weirdest of all undertakings of our ancestors.”* The transformation of common resources into private property involved not only new ways of using the land, but also, as both cause and effect, new ways of thinking about it. The idea that individuals could claim exclusive ownership of parts of nature on which all humans depend was very weird indeed. Contrary to the oft-expressed view that greed is inherent in human nature, the shift from commons-based to private profit-based farming was not accepted easily—in fact, it was denounced and resisted as an assault of the laws of God and the needs of humanity.'

--- Ian Angus. The War Against the Commons.

*Karl Polanyi. The Great Transformation p. 178.

https://search.worldcat.org/title/1348139994

#Capitalism #Enclosure #Commons #Commonism #Resistance #Anarchism #IanAngus