Step Three
I made a claim in my
New Year's Eve's post that there were three concepts that were key steps to the Rule of Law, which if missed or denied, would saddle you with its Doppelganger, the Rule of Rules, instead. That post looked at the First Step as being the importance of Philosophy and emphasized the need to question the common assumptions that the Big Ideas of the West have little or nothing to do with everyday life. In the
New Year's Day post we looked at the Second Step, how, through the ideas of men like Cicero and John Locke, The Law, in a general sense, functions as applied Philosophy. In this post we'll look at the Third Step, that the revolutionary concept of Property (as opposed to possessions), brings The Law into the very real interests, concerns and smallest details of our daily life - whether that's good or bad, depends upon how well the previous steps are taken. BTW, if you're a little uneasy about the
"♫ ♪ ♬ it's as easy as 1,2,3...♬ ♪ ♫" nature of these three steps,
good, you
should be. We'll get into some of the Why's of that in the next post, but for today, first things first: Step Three, following the reality of our thoughts and actions in the world, and the vital connection between them, Property, the
Biggest Ideas of the Big Thinkers of the West, and your ability to live your own life as you choose, and in society with others.
Ultimately what it comes down to when we're talking about the importance of Property to our lives, can be looked at, believe it or not, as a recognition of the unity of cause and effect in human actions.
Think of the concept of Individual Rights as a recognition of those actions which the nature of being a human being requires of us to choose to take, in order to live life
as a human being
(Chief amongst those actions being: thinking, acting, speaking, associating, retaining the fruits which those actions produced, and a recourse to arms to defend them all if need be)
; and of the concept of Property as the recognition that, those effects which result from our actions having been taken, would not
be as they are, in that way, in that context, without that person's time, decisions and actions having been contributed to it, and that involves that person's life in those effects which resulted
from their having taken those actions. That unity of cause and effect is easily observable (whether or not they recognize it) in any people, of any time, and in any place, and it establishes the principle of a man's
right, not just to, but
in his property (Aristotle's recognition of
four causes is better suited to this, but that's a whole 'nother post), rather simply the possession of it.
More simply put, to see a clay pot is to know that it was caused to come to be - someone
did build that. The pot is the effect of the potter's thoughts and actions; you get no pottery, the effect, without its cause, the Potter, and to take that pottery by force, is taking away what some portion of that person's life went into creating.
Property, in its original understanding here, wasn't only an indicator of possession, or of monetary value, but the rightful recognition of a relation established between a person and that which they acted upon. Those actions which you legitimately take, establish your
Property in your speech, in your actions, in your associations, in your effects and most of all, and
first of all, in your life, in your right to it, and in your right
to defend it. Importantly, to recognize and respect
one person's right to their property, is to implicitly recognize
every person's right to take those actions that are required by the nature of being human, and that by virtue of
being human,
every person shares in those same rights - and each owes
