[GJM] Faith based commons for World Unity and Democratic Global Governance (Norman Kurland)
Norman Kurland
thirdway at cesj.org
Mon Jul 10 16:52:31 MDT 2006
Dear Marguerite and Muhammad Mukhtar Alam,
I have difficulty understanding Marguerite's assertion that
"In our emergence as "wholes" it does not appear there is any place
for "private ownership of property" as this can only be created by
setting up *artificial boundaries* which have no place in a healthy
cooperative system. To deviate from that which is natural and create
the artificial which exists only as a concept in one's mind is to
take the road toward aberrancy and create the pathology of
dissociation from which most of society suffers today."
What follows from Marguerite's position is that there has never been and
can never be a prohibition against stealing. If there can be no private
ownership of property, then no one can ever steal anything from
another. I have always thought that if someone takes through the use of
force or stealth everything that another has produced through their
work, that this is the functional equivalent of slavery, i.e., someone
owns another's body when they take one of the basic attributes of
ownership, the fruits of what one owns. And I thought slavery was wrong.
But perhaps we need to get a definition of the meaning of "private
property" before we abandon an institution that John Locke considered
the basis of civil government and led moral leaders like Pope Leo XIII,
in challenging the essence of Marxist philosophy, to declare that
"private property was sacred and inalienable, and should be extended to
all." Here is a definition from the glossary on the CESJ web site that
was excerpted from a paper by Louis Kelso before his first book with the
Aristotelian scholar Mortimer Adler:
Property. Property is an aggregate of the rights, powers and
privileges, recognized by the laws of the nation, which an
individual may possess with respect to various objects. Property is
not the object owned, but the sum total of the "rights" which an
individual may "own" in such an object. These in general include the
rights of (1) possessing, (2) excluding others, (3) disposing or
transferring, (4) using, (5) enjoying the fruits, profits, product
or increase, and (6) destroying or injuring, if the owner so
desires. In a civilized society, these rights are only as effective
as the laws which provide for their enforcement. English common law,
adopted into the fabric of American law, recognizes that the rights
of property are subject to the limtations that (1) things owned may
not be so used as to injure others or the property of others, and
(2) they may not be used in ways contrary to the general welfare of
the people as a whole. From this definition of private property, a
purely functional and practical understanding of the nature of
property becomes clear. Property in everyday life is the right of
control.
As a proponent of a peaceful Second American Revolution that I hope will
become America's legacy to world civilization, here is a lesson I
learned from the First American Revolution:
The connection between widespread distribution of property and
political democracy was evident to America's founders. This
understanding was reflected in the 1776 Virginia Declaration of
Rights, the forerunner of America's Declaration of Independence and
Bill of Rights. Following John Locke's triad of fundamental and
inalienable rights, the Virginia Declaration of Rights declared that
securing "Life, Liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing
Property" is the highest purpose for which any just government is
formed.
Power exists in society whether or not particular individuals own
property. If we accept Lord Action's insight that "power tends to
corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," our best safeguard
against the corruptibility of concentrated power is decentralized
power. If Daniel Webster is also correct that "power naturally and
necessarily follows property," then democratizing ownership is
essential for democratizing power.
In the economic world, property performs the same power-diffusion
function that the ballot does in politics. It does more. It makes
the ballot-holder economically independent of those who wield
political power.
With the abolition of slavery and feudalism, the United States
insured that no person would ever again become the property of
another. Through this and other limitations on the rights of private
property, a just government transcends the weaknesses of a pure
laissez-faire approach to ownership rights. However, by fulfilling
its duty to all its citizens to lift barriers to private property in
the means of production, government builds a permanent political
constituency for a just free market economy.
Marguerite and I undoubtedly share a revulsion against exclusionary
barriers to "fundamental human rights", as expressed in the UN's
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I wonder if Marguerite would
also oppose Article 17 of the UDHR which states, "Everyone has the right
to own property individually as well as in association with others."
I certainly would oppose any monopoly of access to private property in
wealth-producing assets, which is the major structural and moral flaw of
capitalism. But that flaw can be overcome by a restructuring of basic
economic institutions, such as the comprehensive blueprint for change
described in the book Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen, which can
be downloaded free at www.cesj.org or purchased through Amazon.com or
BarnesandNoble.com. Any nation can adapt these reforms, starting with
their central bank and the creation of interest-free money. The flaws
of capitalism cannot be overcome, in my opinion, by eliminating
ownership, but rather by diffusing access to ownership and the power
derived from ownership to every person. Utopian systems that tried to
eliminate private ownership of property generally have led to tyrannical
and corrupt rule and eventual collapse, as in the Soviet Union.
While there is a continuing debate between Kelsonian binary economists
and Georgist economists over ownership and control of land and natural
resources (we already agree on private ownership of assets created by
humans), I think a bridge is being built in the form of what Jeff Smith
calls the "Citizens Dividend", which is incorporated in the paper The
Katrina Wake-up Call: A Strategy for Turning Disaster into A
Twenty-First Century Model for Regional Rebirth
<http://www.cesj.org/homestead/strategies/regional-global/katrinaplan050907.html>.
I'd really love to hear Marguerite's comments on the paper that most
convinced me that Kelso offered a realistic and unifying moral framework
for making sense out of the modern world: KARL MARX: The Almost
Capitalist By Louis O. Kelso.
<http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/almostcapitalist.htm> (My only quibble
with Kelso was in his use of the word "capitalist" to describe what I
call the "Just Third Way" and what Rodney Shakespeare and Peter Challen
call the "Modern Universal Paradigm.")
In Peace, only through Justice,
Norm Kurland
Muhammad Mukhtar Alam wrote:
> Dear Marguerite,
>
> Greetings for peace,
>
> Your reading list is impressive and I think I am well past them and I
> have read most of the works reported in this genre..I had been
> researching for prescriptive propositions and it was in 1994 that I
> formed the conceptual organisation posted at
> http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org in the year 2001. There are
> various concepts and one of the concept proposed in 1993 has been
> adopted by UN.
>
> 6 billion men and women have the souls that will return back to the
> sender. My fatherin laws brother , a prolific author passed away last
> week. May Allah be please with Him for the devotion , he had to the
> cause of justice.
>
> To term all the scripts to be the work of emperors is not correct. I
> guess you have not read Qur'an, where emperors have been denounced as
> they wished to impose their whims. There are many reference to the
> Phraoh and the way he was chastised for oppressed the Muslims..the
> people of Moses.
>
> I would like to suggest a cool reading of the book that I read
> virtually everyday for abidance and inspiration..
>
> With warm regards
>
>
> Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam
>
>
>
> marguerite hampton <ecopilgrim at aabol.com> wrote:
>
> Comment from marguerite on the above subject added to the
>
> following comments:
>
>
>
> >From what I am learning in conducting research for "The Sacred
>
> Quest" I do believe that the "new science in all of its dimensions,
>
> really "multi-dimensional science",is changing the basis for
> religious
>
> beliefs. Especially in the realm of the biology of consciousness.
>
> While the Ancient Ones fairly accurately intuited the essence or
>
> spirit of consciousness, since they did not have at that time the
>
> sophisticated instruments available today with which to measure
>
> the subtle energy fields which make up the bioelectro-magnetic
>
> energy field which constitutes the human body and gives it life,
>
> mythology was the means through which spirit was interpreted.
>
>
>
> These new relevations are as jarring to those of "faith-based"
>
> religions as was the news that the earth was not flat but round. But
>
> just as society emerged from those times, we will get through these
>
> times and take "another leap in consciousness" though the debates
>
> will rage on for some time. What we must keep in mind is that among
>
> the Ancient Ones were those who were as greedy as some today
>
> who feel they should rightly be "emperors". And the "emperors" of
>
> those times wrote scripts and created documents to further their own
>
> ends which many times were not in the best interests of all concerned
>
> just as is happening today.. In so-doing, they created a "collective
>
> consciousness" into which fortunately not all have been ensnared
>
> today. The communications technology offered by the computer and
>
> the Internet enable us in more quickly dissolving the borders that
>
> separate us whether they be of the mind or a physcial creation.
>
>
>
> One of the most significant books to emerge out of this transitional
>
> phase in human history is "The Universe in An Atom" written by the
>
> Dalai Lama. In it, Buddhism is compared to quantum physics with
>
> the Dalai Lama remarking that if there is anything contrary to
> Buddhism
>
> found in science, then science must prevail.
>
>
>
> The new world of reality appears to be significantly based on human
>
> biology and we are referring to "organic organizations which work
>
> together cooperatively to form a whole" as the way to structure or
>
> self-organize ourselves.
>
>
>
> In our emergence as "wholes" it does not appear there is any place
>
> for "private ownership of property" as this can only be created by
>
> setting up *artificial boundaries* which have no place in a healthy
>
> cooperative system. To deviate from that which is natural and
>
> create the artificial which exists only as a concept in one's mind
>
> is to take the road toward aberrancy and create the pathology of
>
> dissociation from which most of society suffers today.
>
>
>
> For an in depth understanding on this, may I suggest reading
>
> Ken Wilber's "No Boundaries". Wilber is the author of 18 books
>
> related to human consciousness.
>
>
>
> When all is said and done we will find 6 billion plus Gods who make
>
> up the Universal Mind or 6 billion plus mini-computers which feed into
>
> a supercomputer by the name of God, Allah, or the Universal Mind
> -- take
>
> your choice. And which form a *feedback loop* via which All become
>
> *Co-creators* of the Universe.
>
>
>
> Further suggested reading is:
>
>
>
> The Biology of Belief - Dr. Bruce Lipton - a cellular biologist and
> researcher
>
> The Dance of Life - Dr. V. Vernon Woolf - a transformational
> psychologist
> and scientific researcher
>
> Molecules of Emotion - Dr. Candace Pert - a biologist and researcher
>
> Infinite Mind - Dr. Valerie V. Hunt - a physiobiologist and
> psychologist
> researcher
>
> The Biology of Transcendence - John Chilton Pearce - scientific
> researcher
>
> Transforming Human Culture - Dr. Jay Earley - a transformational
> psychologist
>
> Ageless Body Timeless Mind - Dr. Deepak Chopra - a medical doctor and
> researcher
>
> The Field by Lynne McTaggart - a researcher
>
>
>
> While I have not as yet read it, David C. Korten, author
>
> of "The Post-Corporate World" has a new book out
>
> entitled: "The Great Turning" which I am extremely
>
> anxious to read. Korten's book the Post-Corporate
>
> World was inspired by biologist Mae-Wan Ho whom
>
> Korten accidentally met on an airline flight. There are
>
> many papers available on the Internet by Dr. Ho relative
>
> to all are worthwhile exploring.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Norman Kurland wrote in part, adding to the following messages:
>
>
>
> Dear Muhammad Mukhtar Alam,
>
>
>
> I agree. Those who want to heal the world must be able to unite with
>
> others on universal moral values, irrespective of their particular
> faith
>
> or set of spiritual beliefs. Here are those of CESJ that you may wish
>
> to consider:
>
>
>
> CESJ's
>
> Core Values Amended April 22, 2006
>
> .
>
> (snip)
>
>
>
> Muhammad Mukhtar Alam wrote:
>
>
>
> > Dear Ashok,
>
> >
>
> > Greetings for peace ,
>
> >
>
> > Considering information gaps on the revealed texts including
> Qur'an we
>
> > tend to get into atheistic evoluationist narration and then seek
>
> > empirical evidences that are replicable for the messengers . Even if
>
> > we get the findings of the scientists who thought they will get
>
> > replicable evidences for the creation of the communications from the
>
> > messengers , we may have many who will differ. There are verses in
>
> > Qur'an suggesting that if the rejectors of the communications were
>
> > offered a stair to the heaven, they would not believe as the
> guidance
>
> > is from Allah only.
>
> >
>
> > Thus the idea of replicable revealatory experience is false .Muslims
>
> > believe that Prophet Muhammad was the last messenger. I think we
> need
>
> > to get united on the commons in the texts for those matters that are
>
> > decided. We have lots of space for investigations in the
> matter.There
>
> > is a need to get beyond the anti-Christian writings and
> eliminate the
>
> > impact of "Galilio" syndrome. This is a term that I use for all the
>
> > expressions that are inspired by anti-Christian authors who
> denounced
>
> > all the communications from the Church in Europe while what they
>
> > wanted was to expose some of the anti-Christian deeds of those who
>
> > spoke and judged based on the some of the ideas that not true
> and that
>
> > was explained in the Holy Qur'an.
>
> >
>
> > I would like to suggest faith based commons to be established for
>
> > global governance and I believe it is the monotheistic framework
> that
>
> > can unite us all. Indeed, prophets were sent to all people and
>
> > communications of God were in all languages.
>
> >
>
> > With best wishes and regards
>
> >
>
> > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam
>
> >
>
> > ~Ashok wrote:
>
> >
>
> > Friends:
>
> >
>
> > Basic teachings of all Revealed Religions are same. The
>
> > revelations were
>
> > offered to humanity through saints and prophets to help human race
>
> > ascend
>
> > the path of evolution.
>
> >
>
> > Nothing is more important today to forge a unity of religions and
>
> > faiths
>
> > because they all point to one direction. Before we can make this a
>
> > practical reality, a quick update on the empirical verification
> of te
>
> > religious Truths is necessary. During past few decades some earnest
>
> > souls have remained occupied in this work and spent their life times
>
> > in Research - OBE, Astral, Inspiraion and development of Divine
>
> > attributes in some human being - who progressed along the lines of
>
> > revealed scriptures but the results of their research seem to have
>
> > been either supressed or reported in biased manner from the
>
> > corridoors of science.
>
> >
>
> > Ashok
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > Muhammad Mukhtar Alam wrote:
>
> >
>
> > Dear Martin,
>
> >
>
> > I would say yes to all and assuredly pious Christians,
>
> > Muslims, Jews ..all followers of the communications of God/
>
> > Allah/Elahom through the messengers can unite i seeking inter
>
> > faith unity. I am sure you have read all in Qur'an and I have
>
> > read all in Bible..There are few differences in details ..but
>
> > we can assuredly count on the commons and seek governance
>
> > defined for them. I have established throuhg my dissertation
>
> > that it is not only for the fear of Hell that we have to abide
>
> > by the command for ecological safety, personal health.. I will
>
> > appreciate if you could see the conceptual organisation at
>
> > http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > There are commands against usury in the Sanskrit texts and I
>
> > consider them part of the affirmations of the monotheistic
>
> > narrations. Indeed, there are faith based commons for global
>
> > unity world unity..
>
> >
>
> > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam
>
> >
>
> > Martin Hattersley wrote:
>
> >
>
> > Mukhtar -
>
> >
>
> > Since there is quite some divergence in articles of faith
>
> > between Jewish,
>
> > Muslim and Christian religions - let alone Buddhism,
>
> > Hinduism etc. etc., it
>
> > seems we have to find some "Lowest Common Denominator"
>
> > that all can accept.
>
> >
>
> > Would the Ten Commandments (or at least items 5 to 9 of
>
> > the 10) be a
>
> > beginning? That would be prohibiting murder, theft,
>
> > adultery and false
>
> > witness, and enjoining care for the aged and infirm.
>
> >
>
> > Martin Hattersley
>
> > 1970-10123-99 St.,
>
> > EDMONTON AB CANADA
>
> > Phone (780)423-4081;Fax(780)425-5247
>
> > e-mail: hattersleyjm at interbaun.com
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
>
> > From: "Muhammad Mukhtar Alam"
>
> > To: ; "Discussion Forum for Global
>
> > Justice"
>
> > Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 11:46 PM
>
> > Subject: Re: [GJM] Fwd: 1st Virtual Congress starts tomorrow
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > > Dear Yaseen,
>
> > >
>
> > > I am trying the get democratic consensus for the
>
> > adoption of faith based
>
> > > measures that derive from abidance to the commands.
>
> > Different diagnostic
>
> > > narrations are listed in my conceptual organisation
>
> > posted at
>
> > > http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org
>
> > >
>
> > > It is important to seek consensus for practice and
>
> > collaboration in
>
> > > monotheitic framework..Atheistic and polytheistic
>
> > framework are proving
>
> > > ecologically and socially hostile..
>
> > >
>
> > > With best prayers for temporal and eternal wellbeing
>
> > >
>
> > > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam
>
> > >
>
> > > Yaseen wrote:
>
> > > Dear All,
>
> > >
>
> > > Thank you for forwarding me the invitation to the 1st
>
> > Virtual Congress
>
> > > which promises to be an interesting contribution on
>
> > multidisciplinary
>
> > > holistic global thinking. Anything which assists us from
>
> > thinking out of
>
> > > the boax and breaking out of the existing unsustainable
>
> > paradigm is
>
> > > welcome and should be supported. We need to start
>
> > developing what I refer
>
> > > to as,
>
> > > Communities of Collaboration. You are also welcome to
>
> > comment on what we
>
> > > are planning in terms of a mobile political festival
>
> > which are on the
>
> > > minutes sections. Also it is important to have the right
>
> > the diagnosis of
>
> > > the problems facing mankind otherwise the solutions
>
> > proposed will be
>
> > > inefectual and a waste of resoucres. Our analogy is like
>
> > the blind men and
>
> > > the elephant and time is not on our side.
>
> > >
>
> > > Best Wishes
>
> > >
>
> > > Moeen Yaseen MA.PGCE
>
> > > Managing Director
>
> > > Global Vision 2000
>
> > > www.gv2000.com
>
> > >>
>
>
>
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