It was Friday, and raining in central Ohio, as I took my seat in history class just to the left of the aisle and one row back from Cary Ross’s seat on the right of the aisle.  From this vantage point, I could absorb any great ideas coming from the podium … or drink in my view of the left, rear corner of my heart’s desire … or both.  Cary was late, but now she arrived making a nice entrance, I thought.  Smooth dignified, but a little bit wiggly. 

Mr. Hopkins entered the classroom, tall and vital, with dark curly hair, cut short, dark penetrating eyes, and a weird little indentation between his bushy eyebrows just above the nose.  I had never seen anything like that, but, on him, it looked cool, and a bit menacing, like, maybe he had been whacked pretty good as a child, but it didn’t stop him … or slow him down.  You will surmise that he was one of my heroes, and, perhaps, Cary Ross’s as well.

Hopkins ascended a little wood platform behind his podium which made him seem gigantic.  The words started to come.

“Ladies and gentlemen, young citizens, today we are talking about property, what it is and what it means.  You are going to see that it is an asset and a source of wealth, but, more important, a symbol of freedom.”

“Property is, of course, just about anything you can own.  There is what they call “real property” or “real estate”, a defined piece of land with a title that says who owns it.  There are also buildings, furnishing, clothes, toys, jewelry, equipment, automobiles, books, and so on.  In books, and other media, there are arrangements of words and pictures that can be owned under copyright.  In patents, there are concepts of inventions that are property.  A business is definitely property as well, with certificates that define what portion of the business each shareholder owns.  Property includes all these and more.”

“At one time, property used to include every physical thing within the boundaries of an estate.  Under feudalism, a king or queen owned a kingdom, which s/he divided up among vassals who supervised, as the king’s agent, all property within the kingdom’s boundaries.”

“Under feudalism, in theory, the king owned, not only the land, buildings, equipment, and fences, but all the people and animals … anything within the kingdom’s boundaries. In theory, the vassals (dukes, earls, etc.) were not owners.  They were trustees.  Everything came from the king who got it from God.”

Jimmy Bartlett put up a hand.  “Mr. H., was it the same way everywhere?”

“Not, exactly, Jim. That was the theory of feudalism, popular in central Europe and parts of Asia well in the second millennium.  In practice, even in medieval Europe, kings usually had trouble controlling their kingdoms, because other kings were fighting over the same turf, and vassals were rebelling, or one thing and another.  The feudal system was supposed to be an improvement over having a bunch of warring tribes fighting over every piece of property day in and day out.  It was supposed to create order out of chaos, so people could get an idea what would happen next.  The Kings, Dukes, Shoguns, etc. were seen as “law and order” compared to other options.”

“Before feudalism, it was mostly warring tribes and hunter-gatherers.  In sparsely settled rural areas, and, especially, on a few wonderful pacific islands, hunter-gatherers did well living off the land. In areas where people were successful living off the land, there probably wasn’t so much fighting over property, because people could get many of their needs from nature.”

“Across the globe, there was likely a mix of rural hunter-gatherers in the wilderness, warring tribes, feudal-type systems which replaced warring tribes, then constitutional governments which replaced the other systems.”

“In certain places, at certain times, like the Roman Empire, people experimented with constitutional government, that is, a state with laws, rules, or customs that a king or emperor cannot overturn, but each one degenerated into tyranny (one-person rule) after a while.  In the ancient middle east, around 1750 BC, a ruler named Hammurabi wrote a code of laws, but he remained the king.  Moses got the 10 commandments from God … or from somewhere. In antiquity, tribes sometimes chose rulers based on skills or leadership, but they were still absolute rulers.  Chinese, Indian, and Mongol rulers had a few laws, and definitely some bureaucrats, but they were still absolute rulers.  That is, human rights hardly existed.”

“The point is that you didn’t really own property if a king or emperor could take it whenever they felt like it.  Before and during feudalism, the average person believed s/he owned their clothes, their tools, and a few other personal items. Anything else that s/he thought s/he owned could be taken away quickly and violently by a ruler or a large, angry neighbor.”

Prior to the evolution of common law in England, culminating in Magna Carta in 1215, for regular folks there was hardly any private property in the world.  If you did have any property, it was at risk of being taken away at any moment.”

Sonia Gilmore, a cute Nordic-looking girl, raised her hand and smiled significantly at Hopkins. (Maybe he was everyone’s hero.)  “Mr. Hopkins, since I took Latin, I think Magna Carta sounds like a big chart.  What did a Big Chart have to do with property?”

Billy Bay snorted quietly.  “Gilmore, you are such a twit.”  Then he spoke up: “Mr. H. This tale is going nowhere.  Can you get to the point? Some of us need to get to our next destination … which is either home, basketball practice, or the detention room.”

As class clown, Billy smiled around the class, looking for approval.  Mitzi Crain, in a peasant blouse and tight jeans, acknowledged him.  “Billy, I think we all know which of those three is your destination.”  Hopkins relaxed and smiled, letting the kids have a little fun.

Hopkins had been happy to get a breath while Billy Bay helped wake up a few people.  Not us.   Cary and I were Hopkins’ cadets, not asleep, and mesmerized by his brilliance. When I looked at her for confirmation, she smiled quickly and turned away.

“Sonia, Billy, young people, this was a momentous event.  Magna Carta in 1215 is one of the first recorded events that suggests that a person has a right to own property that may not be taken by a king, emperor, pharaoh, or even a God.”

Some kids were still dozing, but Cary and I were enjoying.  I was thinking about dancing in the aisle with her.

Hopkins continued: “Over the many years that people have lived on earth, lots of things have happened of which there is no record.  Among the recorded events, Magna Carta is considered key in the evolution of individual rights.  Magna Carta was an agreement signed by a King (under duress) saying that he accepts limited powers, and includes a list of things a King cannot do … things that he can never take away from his subjects.  These are rights.”

“Of course, the people claiming “rights” in 1215 were not average folks, but, a bunch of barons, dukes, and earls. However, human rights would, as they say, eventually trickle down to everyone, even slaves.”

“In, in 1649 and 1689, when the English overthrew their kings, more individual rights evolved into English law. The English have a tradition of overthrowing strong kings and replacing them with weaker kings.  Now, in the 20th century, they have “royals” who do little but generate news in the National Enquirer.”

“You can argue the details and meaning of each event, but the things that happened in England and Scotland, from Magna Carta through Enlightenment, led many people to believe that they had a right to “life, liberty, and property”, a favorite phrase of John Locke, an influential voice for liberty then, and now.  Locke was praised in his time by Isaac Newton, Voltaire, and William Penn, and after death, by American founders Franklin, Madison, Adams, and Jefferson.”

“The American Declaration of Independence from England, the most famous single statement on liberty, drew on ideas in Locke’s two Treatises on Civil Government.  For some reason, in writing the Declaration, Jefferson replaced “property” with the “the pursuit of happiness”, maybe thinking it would have more emotional impact.  He was likely correct.”

Jim Bartlett was awake again now.  “Mr. Hopkins, didn’t President Roosevelt just give us the four freedoms a few years ago. Are those rights?”

“Jim, I guess freedoms and rights are almost the same thing.  Roosevelt mentioned Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Worship, which, as you well know, were included in the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.  So, Roosevelt, didn’t give us those, but I suppose he was proposing to continue them.”

Hopkins paused, and Carolyn Hillman, a quietly intelligent person that I wished would talk more now spoke up. “Mr. Hopkins, I think of rights and freedoms as things that we are allowed to do, not things that can be given to us like money or food.”

Hopkins was beaming.  If the high fives had been invented then, he would have given her one. 

“The other freedoms he mentioned are not found in the US Constitution. I don’t want to offend New Dealers, but these statements are more like political slogans than statements about rights.  Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear are fake rights, that is, they are not really rights, because a government can’t really guarantee them.”

“Freedom from Fear is the more obvious fake.  We all know people who are afraid to cross the street, or afraid of their shadow.  How could a government guarantee that people would not feel fear?  It is kind of preposterous.  People listened to the radio during the depression and during World War II, and Roosevelt and Churchill helped reduce peoples’ fears.  Still, that doesn’t make fear reduction a right that could be guaranteed.”

“Freedom from Want is too vague.  It is like making food, clothing, health care, a nice house, and free sex a right. People want a lot of things, but government can’t really guarantee fulfillment. Rights are verbs, not nouns. That is, you can have the right to speak, to pray, to publish, to live, to own property.  Rights are free.  But, you can’t really have a right to receive stuff.  Stuff is not free, and someone needs to pay.”

“The right to property is not a right to be given property. Property is scarce and valuable, so you need to earn money to buy it.  The property right does not give you property, but only protects property that you have legally acquired by purchase.”     

“In 1800 the USA was a large country with only a small population, which soon led to the availability of a great deal of property at low prices.  This quickly led to a majority of migrants to rural America becoming landowners. It is fair to say that a majority of individual citizens had never owned their own land anywhere at any time.  This was happening in rural America.”

“Of course, indigenous people, Native Americans, “Indians” had occupied America for centuries, just as indigenous people occupied rural lands across the globe, but in pre-feudal cultures, the land belonged to a tribe, not to an individual. It turned out that a majority of individuals personally owning land became a powerful catalyst for rapid economic growth.”

At that, I threw up my hand.  “Mr. Hopkins, my dad says rapid economic growth is a barometer or human progress.  He says that every bit of increase in GNP means saving babies lives, bringing people out of poverty, and better lives for everyone.  Is that historically accurate.”

Hopkins smirked again.  Maybe.  That’s not really my area of expertise … more of a history and political science guy.

Cary Ross wiggled a little bit, turned around, and smiled at me.  I died and went to Heaven.

Categories: Commentary, Culture, Philosophy, Politics