I hate this myth so fucking much, Palestinians had plenty of beautiful orchards filled with fruits and nuts before the first genocidal colonist even thought about stealing their land
It's the same fucking myth from every settler colonial state. They said the same things about South Africa, the same things about North America, anywhere the settlers came they tell themselves "why, there's nothing and nobody here!" atop a mountain of indigenous bodies.
I've seen that one used so much; that apparently if you're not making proper use of the land, there's nothing immoral about taking it from you and turning it into something better.
If that was logical then corporations would have the right to every ounce of land as they can make them extremely profitable.
All that space wasted to house just three people? All that unused garden space? Companies would make every square inch contribute towards productivity.
In Thomas More's classic Utopia, 1516, he argued that colonists would be justified in seizing territory by force if local people were unwilling to join in the colonists' productive way of life. Land not fruitfully used could rightfully he seized by those who would render it fruitful. In such cases, the colonists were entitled by natural law to appropriate land without the permission of any local authority.
The English would go even further, extending the principles outlined by More to encompass not just land unused or uncultivated altogether, but land not used fruitfully enough, and not in the right way, by the standards of English commercial agriculture.
to complicate the matter further that principle was orginally developed in England as a criticism of private ownership of land and advocacy of collective farms owned by the working class and then reapplied to justify theft from natives
Oh yeah, when I started reading about permaculture and agroforestry the main takeaway I got was "Holy shit, the indigenous people here in :amerikkka: had already perfected these systems and then we came here and destroyed it all while calling it progress"
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Will we remember the lessons we were taught by centuries of trauma and mistakes? Not them, I wouldn't expect them to remember what they ate for breakfast. Will WE remember?
Israel was in part heavily desired for its land because of how well-cultivated the region was beforehand. Similar to how Aboriginal Australians used controlled fires long before the Angloids came.
I hate this myth so fucking much, Palestinians had plenty of beautiful orchards filled with fruits and nuts before the first genocidal colonist even thought about stealing their land
It's the same fucking myth from every settler colonial state. They said the same things about South Africa, the same things about North America, anywhere the settlers came they tell themselves "why, there's nothing and nobody here!" atop a mountain of indigenous bodies.
the only thing you're missing is "Well, they weren't really using the land properly"
I've seen that one used so much; that apparently if you're not making proper use of the land, there's nothing immoral about taking it from you and turning it into something better.
If that was logical then corporations would have the right to every ounce of land as they can make them extremely profitable.
All that space wasted to house just three people? All that unused garden space? Companies would make every square inch contribute towards productivity.
although no one ever talks about seizing car parks to turn them into housing blocks
Correct! :capitalist-laugh:
this but communist
In Thomas More's classic Utopia, 1516, he argued that colonists would be justified in seizing territory by force if local people were unwilling to join in the colonists' productive way of life. Land not fruitfully used could rightfully he seized by those who would render it fruitful. In such cases, the colonists were entitled by natural law to appropriate land without the permission of any local authority.
The English would go even further, extending the principles outlined by More to encompass not just land unused or uncultivated altogether, but land not used fruitfully enough, and not in the right way, by the standards of English commercial agriculture.
to complicate the matter further that principle was orginally developed in England as a criticism of private ownership of land and advocacy of collective farms owned by the working class and then reapplied to justify theft from natives
Oh yeah, when I started reading about permaculture and agroforestry the main takeaway I got was "Holy shit, the indigenous people here in :amerikkka: had already perfected these systems and then we came here and destroyed it all while calling it progress"
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Will we remember the lessons we were taught by centuries of trauma and mistakes? Not them, I wouldn't expect them to remember what they ate for breakfast. Will WE remember?
Israel was in part heavily desired for its land because of how well-cultivated the region was beforehand. Similar to how Aboriginal Australians used controlled fires long before the Angloids came.
Settler colonialism doesn’t change tactics.