WEBVTT NOTE Who Owns What 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Conflict in Ownership 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:10.360 In thinking of the various ways that human beings own property, we discover that property 3 00:00:10.360 --> 00:00:17.160 can be owned, it can be unowned, and it can be in a state of conflict. And it's extremely 4 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:21.620 important if we're going to maximize human well-being, which I think that's something 5 00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:27.960 we would all like to do, it's extremely important, it seems to me, that we begin avoiding or 6 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:34.660 Or at least minimizing the areas of conflict. And one of the most important things here, 7 00:00:34.660 --> 00:00:42.400 it seems to me, would be to remove as much as possible types of ownership which automatically 8 00:00:42.400 --> 00:00:49.600 are going to lead into conflict of one sort or another. Now let's get into these various 9 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:58.480 In these areas, there are really four types of procedures that we can enter into in relation 10 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:06.300 to property, which will predictably lead into conflict. The first of these is very, very 11 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:12.560 ancient. It's one that we have practiced, and I'm sorry to say we've practiced with 12 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:19.400 is some diligence for many, many centuries. It's the practice of slavery. What happens 13 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:26.520 here is that we have a property owner who decides that he has a right to own another 14 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:33.680 property owner. Now, that is bound to create conflict, because nature has ordained that 15 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:40.800 each one of these property owners, in fact, controls himself. Human energy operates under 16 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:49.440 The control of human energy is always individual. Each person can and does control himself. 17 00:01:49.440 --> 00:01:54.800 Now he may not control himself the way other people want him to, but the fact is that whatever 18 00:01:54.800 --> 00:02:02.240 control exists on him, he imposes. That is a fact of life. Each person controls himself. 19 00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:07.880 So when we create a condition of slavery, we are creating an artificial condition that 20 00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:16.360 is not sustained by nature. One man here is acting as though he could control another man. 21 00:02:17.160 --> 00:02:22.600 Now, the only way he can possibly even act out that part is with the other man's consent, 22 00:02:23.320 --> 00:02:30.920 because if the other man refuses to act like a slave, although he may die, he doesn't have 23 00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:41.480 have to obey the slave master. So in point of fact, every slave consents as a preferential 24 00:02:41.480 --> 00:02:47.780 choice to death. Now that's not much of a choice, I'll grant you. Choosing between 25 00:02:47.780 --> 00:02:52.920 dying or being a slave, well under certain conditions I think I would prefer death than 26 00:02:52.920 --> 00:03:00.680 to be a slave. But in any case, we have to recognize that the nature of man is such that 27 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:08.680 that the ultimate consent for his behavior does reside in the slave, not just the slave 28 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:15.000 master. The slave consents to be a slave or he is not made one. I might point out that 29 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:21.840 there was at one time a particular tribe of blacks in Africa that were being enslaved 30 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:26.360 and brought over to this country. This was back in the early days of the slave trade. 31 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:31.560 And not a single one of this tribe ever became a slave. You could kill them, but you could 32 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:37.120 not make them a slave. And the result was that there was so much resistance put up by 33 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:43.720 the members of this particular tribe that the orders went out to the slave-runners, 34 00:03:43.720 --> 00:03:48.160 just never bring us any more of these people because you can't make them slaves. I could 35 00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:52.820 point out that much the same situation occurred with the American Indian. Don't think the 36 00:03:52.820 --> 00:03:57.740 The effort wasn't made to convert the American Indian into a slave. It was made. But you 37 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:03.740 couldn't have any success with it. The Indians simply wouldn't submit to slavery. 38 00:04:03.740 --> 00:04:08.380 Now it's important that you have in mind what slavery really is. Slavery, you know, 39 00:04:08.380 --> 00:04:13.540 is not imprisonment. Many people suppose that it is, and they sort of automatically make 40 00:04:13.540 --> 00:04:21.100 that assumption. A slave is viewed as an economic asset by the slave master. The purpose in 41 00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:30.100 and Having a Slave is to have a piece of productive human property, the profits of which you can get for yourself. 42 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:35.600 So the more slaves you have, the more you can get people to work that you don't have to pay. That's the theory. 43 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:41.600 So a slave isn't a prisoner. A prisoner would be an economic liability. 44 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:45.600 A slave is viewed as an economic asset. You've got him and you make him work. 45 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:49.600 And then you get the products of his labor. That's the idea. 46 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:56.800 Of course, again to show you how contrary to nature this is, it is not possible for a slave master 47 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:04.640 to take the full productive level from a slave, because the slave also has to be maintained. 48 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:13.200 He has to eat, he has to have clothing, comforts, housing, medical attention, etc., and that costs. 49 00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:19.660 So, with any kind of productive equipment that you have, whether it be a slave or a 50 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:27.160 machine, there is a cost, and nothing is for free. So, the concept of slavery is contrary 51 00:05:27.160 --> 00:05:33.640 to nature. It isn't possible for you to own another man and control him. If you do 52 00:05:33.640 --> 00:05:38.880 own him—and this would of course be a complete legal fiction, but assuming you have such 53 00:05:38.880 --> 00:05:57.880 Now, we could debate the niceties of this for a long time, but the fact remains that when you have a condition of slavery, you've got a built-in condition for conflict. 54 00:05:57.880 --> 00:06:05.880 It is an unhappy, a degraded, an undesirable, a negative, vicious practice. 55 00:06:05.880 --> 00:06:13.320 We frown upon slavery and rightly so. It is not good. We should do our best to see that it doesn't occur. 56 00:06:13.320 --> 00:06:20.200 And what does it mean? It means that at no time should anyone ever be coerced 57 00:06:20.840 --> 00:06:29.400 into sharing a part of what he has produced at no cost with someone else by force. That's what it 58 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:40.600 Means. If you are compelled to provide forced labor and you don't get paid for it, that's slavery. 59 00:06:41.320 --> 00:06:47.320 Now, if this takes up all of your productive energy, then you're 100% enslaved. 60 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:54.200 If it takes up half of your productive energy, then you're 50% enslaved. If it takes up 10% of 61 00:06:54.200 --> 00:06:59.080 your productive energy, then you're 10% enslaved. You don't have to be totally enslaved 62 00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:05.320 to be enslaved. Now, if we believe in freedom and the rights of man, we cannot believe in slavery. 63 00:07:05.320 --> 00:07:13.880 Slavery is antithetical, obviously. But here we have a condition, and we've done a lot with it, 64 00:07:13.880 --> 00:07:18.600 let me tell you, through the history of man. We've had a lot of slavery. I might point out, 65 00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:25.960 in the event that there is any feeling of racial superiority, let me point out that white men 66 00:07:25.960 --> 00:07:32.360 have tended to make the best slaves that have ever existed. And there have been more instances 67 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:38.560 of white enslavement and white people enslaving others than in any other race. That's an 68 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:44.640 interesting thing. So don't get any idea of whatever race you are that there's something 69 00:07:44.640 --> 00:07:51.360 superior or inferior about you as a result of your race. Uh-uh. It just isn't so. 70 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:56.960 So anyway, it's a bad practice. We don't want it. We want to see it eliminated totally. 71 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:02.220 But you know, we have traces of it even today. We have practices of slavery right in this 72 00:08:02.220 --> 00:08:09.400 country. Anybody who is required to perform a particular service and doesn't get paid 73 00:08:09.400 --> 00:08:15.120 for it and yet can't get out of performing the service is being exploited and enslaved 74 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:16.840 to that degree. 75 00:08:16.840 --> 00:08:25.840 Example, if a man who is imprisoned in a penitentiary or jail is compelled to work 76 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:32.360 and he is not paid for his work, he is a slave to the degree that he is so compelled. 77 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:37.920 Any businessman who is required to make out forms for the government and to collect taxes 78 00:08:37.920 --> 00:08:43.240 for the government and isn't paid for doing it is a slave to the government. 79 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:44.240 Absolutely. 80 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:51.080 It doesn't make any difference where it occurs or who is involved. Anyone who is compelled 81 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:57.360 against his will to perform a service and isn't recompensed in a manner satisfactory 82 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:02.680 to him and yet he can't get out of it, he's a slave to that degree. And certainly you've 83 00:09:02.680 --> 00:09:10.160 got conflict. Now the next area where conflict can occur is when we attempt to try to own 84 00:09:10.160 --> 00:09:18.680 on a piece of property, and we don't take the time to accurately establish the boundaries. 85 00:09:18.680 --> 00:09:23.340 This is particularly vital, of course, when we're dealing with real estate and properties 86 00:09:23.340 --> 00:09:31.320 of this sort. I can't begin to think of how many conflicts have arisen over either improperly 87 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:39.400 drawn boundaries in land, or even if they were properly drawn, conflicts as to where 88 00:09:39.400 --> 00:09:45.480 where they should have been drawn. Most—well, I can't say most, but certainly a great many 89 00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:52.080 of the conflicts that we human beings have had all center around the division of land, 90 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:59.240 who is going to get what and where the boundary marks are. So we can fight over that, and 91 00:09:59.240 --> 00:10:05.080 we've had just hundreds of thousands of fights, both locally between individuals and 92 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:11.400 on grand scales between massed armies and between collective nations over where the 93 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:19.400 boundaries are and where they ought to be. So a question of boundary is a vital concern. 94 00:10:19.400 --> 00:10:24.080 If we're going to start minimizing conflict, we're certainly going to have to recognize 95 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:30.440 the significance of boundary and find out who owns what and draw the line and recognize 96 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:48.520 A third type of conflict that arises is the type of conflict that occurs when two individuals 97 00:10:48.520 --> 00:10:55.520 lay claim to precisely the same property, each one contending that the property is his. 98 00:10:55.520 --> 00:11:03.120 This can happen inadvertently in such practices as joint ownership, where you would have two 99 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:11.720 persons like say a husband and wife who jointly own say a house and lot. 100 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:18.400 Now if there isn't any line of demarcation as to who is going to control the house and 101 00:11:18.400 --> 00:11:26.520 and the lot, and how much of the house and lot belong to each, if it is merely said conveniently, 102 00:11:26.520 --> 00:11:32.320 well it belongs to both of them equally, you've got a good base for a conflict. 103 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:33.860 That's one way you can have it. 104 00:11:33.860 --> 00:11:40.600 So I recommend always that whenever you get into a joint ownership situation, that you 105 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:45.220 establish in advance where the boundaries are and be sure that they're there, and especially 106 00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:48.000 the boundary in relation to control. 107 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.380 Now when I was married, actually before I was married, my wife and I realized that this 108 00:11:53.380 --> 00:11:58.480 was a very sensitive area and that we'd have to understand this, so we worked it out in 109 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:04.440 advance and that way it has tended to minimize conflict that might otherwise have arisen. 110 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:09.820 We agreed in our household that she would make all of the day-to-day decisions. 111 00:12:09.820 --> 00:12:14.240 She would decide what we would eat at the various meals that would be served and she 112 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:19.740 We would arrange the furniture in the house and take care of the day-to-day decisions that have to be made. 113 00:12:19.740 --> 00:12:23.740 This would be none of my business. We drew that kind of a line. 114 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:31.740 Now, in the more important areas, such as foreign affairs and things of this sort, that was going to be my area. 115 00:12:31.740 --> 00:12:40.240 And we've been married now for a great many years. I don't dare tell you how many, but it's a long time, and nothing of importance has come up. 116 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:46.440 So, you see, it has tended to minimize conflict by having made this arrangement in advance. 117 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:51.280 I'm joking, of course, but the fact remains that it illustrates how important it is that 118 00:12:51.280 --> 00:12:58.080 we do not have conflicting claims that we draw accurate and acceptable boundaries, including 119 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:03.000 the one as to who is going to control how much of what, and we establish that in advance. 120 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.480 That's a good way of minimizing conflict. 121 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:10.860 But another way that conflict appears right here is through an act of theft. 122 00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:17.280 Any kind of theft is nothing more than the attempt to establish conflicting claims over 123 00:13:17.280 --> 00:13:19.120 a given piece of property. 124 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.320 I'm wearing a wristwatch. 125 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:24.920 Let's suppose somebody stole it from me. 126 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:29.320 I take a look at the watch on his wrist and I say, gee whiz, that looks very much like 127 00:13:29.320 --> 00:13:32.400 my watch and my watch was just recently stolen. 128 00:13:32.400 --> 00:13:38.640 I wonder if that's mine. And I say to him, Is that my watch? He says, No, it's mine. 129 00:13:38.640 --> 00:13:46.640 But what if it really is mine and not his? How do we find out? I don't know. You see, 130 00:13:46.640 --> 00:13:54.120 there's a very interesting thing here. The ownership of property is always vulnerable. 131 00:13:54.120 --> 00:14:02.000 Anything that you own can be stolen. And if the thief is a skillful dissembler and can 132 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:08.960 put on a good front he might even be able to convince all your neighbors that you're trying to 133 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:14.320 pull a fast one on him and that the property in question is really his and not yours. 134 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:20.800 You can't tell by looking at a person what he owns, and you can't tell by looking at a property 135 00:14:20.800 --> 00:14:28.640 who owns it. I couldn't even tell that this watch is mine even though my name might be inscribed on it 136 00:14:28.640 --> 00:14:37.640 Because people's watches that have names inscribed on them are often sold, or given away, or bequeathed. 137 00:14:37.640 --> 00:14:45.640 So suppose my name is on this, and someone steals it, and I say, well, that's mine, and it has my name on it. 138 00:14:45.640 --> 00:14:51.640 And they can come back and say, well, that's the name of my grandfather, and it was given to me. 139 00:14:51.640 --> 00:15:10.440 You see the difficulty. We take all the precautions that we can take, but in the end, if we have a conflict here, it will be because two persons or more are claiming the same property, each one contending that his claim is a valid claim. 140 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:19.360 Now that's of course a conflict. Any conflict over who owns a given property is undesirable. 141 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:24.760 It is of course the kind of thing that we run into because we have today the government, 142 00:15:24.760 --> 00:15:30.200 for example, taxing people. Now you'd be surprised how many people who find themselves 143 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:36.040 taxed feel that the money taken away from them is theirs. They've earned it and they've 144 00:15:36.040 --> 00:15:42.520 got the notion that it's theirs. So when the government takes it, they resent it. They 145 00:15:42.520 --> 00:15:47.400 work for it. As far as they're concerned, it's their property. Well, the government 146 00:15:47.400 --> 00:15:53.960 says, no, we have a right to take so much of your property from you. You've got a conflict. 147 00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:59.940 We learn to live with these conflicts, but these conflicts do not take and advance the 148 00:15:59.940 --> 00:16:04.800 human well-being that we're talking about. This tends to create frustration. Here's 149 00:16:04.800 --> 00:16:09.700 Here's a fellow that's gone out and worked very, very hard because he has ideas of an 150 00:16:09.700 --> 00:16:14.200 investment he wants to make, something he wants to do with his money, and he works and 151 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:19.660 he earns the money. And then he finds that 30 percent of it is taken from him. So he 152 00:16:19.660 --> 00:16:25.700 didn't really earn it. And it takes him that much longer to earn what it was that he needed 153 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:30.200 in order to do what it was that he wanted to do. And by the time he really does get 154 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:35.060 it, he finds that that costs more, too, than it was when he started. So he's frustrated 155 00:16:35.060 --> 00:16:39.540 all up and down the line. And the next thing you know, he's going to be aggressive somewhere. 156 00:16:39.540 --> 00:16:45.200 And we've got all kinds of problems. And stemming from what? From a double claim on 157 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:50.620 a single dollar. The fellow who earned it says it's his. The government says it's his. 158 00:16:50.620 --> 00:16:57.100 Now what are you going to do? Well, I'm suggesting that if you want to minimize human conflict, 159 00:16:57.100 --> 00:17:03.620 You want to minimize that type of behavior. Have as little of that as possible. Hopefully, 160 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:07.700 get rid of it. But if you can't get rid of it, at least reduce it as far as possible 161 00:17:07.700 --> 00:17:11.340 so there won't be these conflicting claims. 162 00:17:11.340 --> 00:17:17.800 Now the fourth type of conflict, beyond the conflict obviously instituted by theft, would 163 00:17:17.800 --> 00:17:24.300 be the conflict that we would find in collective ownership. Where you have a case of collective 164 00:17:24.300 --> 00:17:33.420 Ownership, you have a given property where it is said that you own it in concert with 165 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:41.140 a great many other people who also own it. And now you've got a conflict for sure because 166 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:47.260 you can't figure out who the responsible party is. Responsibility and authority in this 167 00:17:47.260 --> 00:17:53.200 case are divided and you don't know who is responsible and you don't know where the 168 00:17:53.200 --> 00:18:03.960 All of these areas of conflict are to be avoided as much as possible if we are going to attempt 169 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:13.120 to maximize human well-being. Now, let me point out how you can correctly own property. 170 00:18:13.120 --> 00:18:18.860 Instead of owning property in conflict, which would be to try to own other people, or to 171 00:18:18.860 --> 00:18:24.660 to try to own property where boundaries are not clearly defined, or to try to own property 172 00:18:24.660 --> 00:18:30.280 that other people own, or to try to own property in concert with others where nobody knows 173 00:18:30.280 --> 00:18:32.900 how much of what is owned by whom. 174 00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:37.600 Instead of doing those things, how about trying individual ownership? 175 00:18:37.600 --> 00:18:39.780 Now that's a very simple thing. 176 00:18:39.780 --> 00:18:46.300 You get something, you buy it, it becomes yours, and then you make the decisions over 177 00:18:46.300 --> 00:18:51.460 over it, and you'd be surprised how quickly all conflict over that property tends to be 178 00:18:51.460 --> 00:18:57.800 minimized or even vanishes. It's been a long time, for example, since anybody objected 179 00:18:57.800 --> 00:19:03.080 to my watch. It's mine. We don't fight over it. Everybody knows it's mine. I'm wearing 180 00:19:03.080 --> 00:19:08.660 it and nobody's uptight about it. So there it is. 181 00:19:08.660 --> 00:19:13.480 And the same thing is true with my clothing and with other things which I obviously own. 182 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:17.480 Very few people fight me about that. They just accept that it's mine. And I accept 183 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:21.840 that what they have is theirs, and we get along fine. You'd be surprised how quickly 184 00:19:21.840 --> 00:19:27.360 individual ownership solves these problems. I would contend that individual ownership 185 00:19:27.360 --> 00:19:33.760 is the best. However, it isn't the only way. Joint ownership is a perfectly valid way of 186 00:19:33.760 --> 00:19:39.440 owning property. This is where two or more get together on a given piece of property, 187 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:44.680 Especially if it's a large property and maybe it's too costly for one person to manage. 188 00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:50.180 So he brings in one or more partners, or a man and wife go into partnership by virtue 189 00:19:50.180 --> 00:19:53.400 of their marriage, and they own something jointly. 190 00:19:53.400 --> 00:20:01.560 No problem, providing in so doing they clearly draw the line of demarcation so each one knows 191 00:20:01.560 --> 00:20:05.240 where his authority is and what his interests are. 192 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:11.640 And when that's understood in advance, you just don't have the problems that you get otherwise. 193 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:14.360 And of course the same thing goes with corporate ownership. 194 00:20:14.360 --> 00:20:18.240 There are other things relating to corporate ownership that we might question. 195 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:24.160 But the fact remains that from the standpoint of establishing who owns how much of what, 196 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:25.760 you can do it. 197 00:20:25.760 --> 00:20:30.680 Because the owners of the corporate body are the stockholders and each stockholder knows 198 00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:35.800 It shows precisely how many shares he owns, and he can do as he pleases with the shares. 199 00:20:35.800 --> 00:20:42.080 He can keep them, sell them, give them away, burn them up, do as he pleases, they are his. 200 00:20:42.080 --> 00:20:47.200 Now it's where you get into these areas that you get into confusion. 201 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.920 For example, there's a big hue and cry. 202 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:56.480 Probably it's subsiding a little more now than it was around recently, but the reason 203 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:03.040 for the Subsiding, relates to the apparent intention now on the part of our government 204 00:21:03.040 --> 00:21:10.680 to withdraw from the current war in Vietnam. But there was a big hue and cry about burning 205 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:16.880 draft cards. And I've often asked people, you know, everybody is concerned here and 206 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:22.480 some people have very profound opinions. Students should be thrown into jail if they burn their 207 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:27.000 Draft Cards. Or, on the other hand, if you listen to the other side, why every student 208 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:31.640 has a right to burn his draft card and he ought to do it. Well, what's the fact? Well, 209 00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:36.320 what you want to find out is who owns the draft card. If the draft card belongs to the 210 00:21:36.320 --> 00:21:40.280 student, he can do as he pleases with it. If the draft card belongs to the government, 211 00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:44.440 then it's the government's property. And here you are, you see. If you can establish 212 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:50.420 who owns something, then you can establish where authority is over it. And that's the 213 00:21:50.420 --> 00:22:08.660 I would like to point out one additional thing here in respect to conflict that can arise 214 00:22:08.660 --> 00:22:19.120 over ownership. The only rightful authority in the world is the authority of the owner 215 00:22:19.120 --> 00:22:29.160 over His Property. That's it. Any other type of authority that is expressed is a usurpation. 216 00:22:29.160 --> 00:22:37.820 Any other. You and I, as property owners, are the ultimate decision-makers over ourselves 217 00:22:37.820 --> 00:22:46.060 and over those things which we own. And that is what could be called rightful authority. 218 00:22:46.060 --> 00:22:52.260 Any attempt on the part of any other person or group to intervene with our decision-making 219 00:22:52.260 --> 00:22:59.220 ability and the exercise of our authority over what is ours is a violation of our rights 220 00:22:59.220 --> 00:23:07.220 in the matter and is a wrong in itself. I might point out in conjunction with this that the 221 00:23:07.220 --> 00:23:15.440 only crime in the world is nothing more than the violation of a property boundary against 222 00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:17.200 Against the Will of the Owner. 223 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:22.640 Think for a moment of all the words that we have indicating conflict and crime. 224 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:28.920 Murder, arson, rape, robbery, burglary, fraud, extortion, muggery. 225 00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:30.040 We're good at it, you see. 226 00:23:30.040 --> 00:23:31.360 We can have conflict. 227 00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:34.400 Boy, we've got lots of fancy names for it. 228 00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:38.260 But take a look at every one of those words and what do they involve. 229 00:23:38.260 --> 00:23:45.700 In every single instance, there is the violation of a property boundary against the will of 230 00:23:45.700 --> 00:23:51.900 the owner. That's what crime is all about. There isn't a single crime, there isn't 231 00:23:51.900 --> 00:23:58.180 a single thing that you can think of that is morally improper, that doesn't begin 232 00:23:58.180 --> 00:24:04.800 and end with the violation of a boundary against the will of the owner. Now that puts it on 233 00:24:04.800 --> 00:24:12.440 and a very, very simple base. As a matter of fact, this is so broadly recognized that 234 00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:19.640 it would be a base for the mores of all people everywhere in the world. They would differ 235 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:24.520 as to what property is. With some people, for instance, there are certain primitive 236 00:24:24.520 --> 00:24:29.880 tribes that would view the tribal ritual as a property and possibly the only property 237 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:35.560 they have. And if you violated that property, it would be the grossest type of criminal 238 00:24:35.560 --> 00:24:40.680 action as far as their view is concerned, because that's the only property that concerns 239 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:47.280 them. With other people, there would be other types of things that are property. With us 240 00:24:47.280 --> 00:24:54.300 who live in a relatively modern, advanced, dynamic culture, we have many types of property. 241 00:24:54.300 --> 00:25:02.380 But wherever you run into crime, you run into a violation of a property boundary. 242 00:25:02.380 --> 00:25:09.180 If you are going to maximize human well-being, you are going to have to recognize that the 243 00:25:09.180 --> 00:25:15.540 only way we can get along with each other is to operate in a world where we respect 244 00:25:15.540 --> 00:25:18.420 one another's boundaries. 245 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:27.260 This is so basically true that in five languages, including English and Latin, the root stem 246 00:25:27.260 --> 00:25:34.900 of the word that means property is also the same root that we use for the word that means 247 00:25:34.900 --> 00:25:42.940 correct behavior. For instance, in the Latin and in English, we use the word propair. Propair 248 00:25:42.940 --> 00:25:50.220 is the stem for propaire t, the item owned, and propaire li, the correct way of behavior. 249 00:25:50.940 --> 00:26:00.300 Correct behavior is behavior that is based upon propaire t, or property, and it is the kind of 250 00:26:00.300 --> 00:26:08.140 behavior that recognizes property boundaries. I remember that when I was just a very young lad 251 00:26:08.140 --> 00:26:15.500 And I had my first date with a girl. My dad took me aside and explained to me, he said, 252 00:26:15.500 --> 00:26:22.700 Now, young man, when you go out this evening, I want you to keep in mind all of the proprieties. 253 00:26:22.700 --> 00:26:27.420 I'd never heard that before. And I said, What are the proprieties? Well, he explained to me 254 00:26:27.420 --> 00:26:33.260 a very interesting way. He said, The girl you're going with owns herself. Don't trespass. 255 00:26:33.260 --> 00:26:44.700 This is a cute way of saying it. Anyway, that is a way of expressing the proprietary position 256 00:26:44.700 --> 00:26:50.220 of the owner. The owner of the property has the right to say yes or no, if you want to 257 00:26:50.220 --> 00:26:56.100 put it bluntly, and the other party hasn't any rights at all. The only right that you 258 00:26:56.100 --> 00:27:02.180 have is the right that you have over what is yours, and you are the proprietor there. 259 00:27:02.180 --> 00:27:08.980 But beyond that you don't have any rights at all and so you become a person who operates 260 00:27:08.980 --> 00:27:15.040 under a privilege if you can obtain it and that's the way that works. So if you want 261 00:27:15.040 --> 00:27:25.040 to avoid crime and molestation and friction and frustration and aggression you begin recognizing 262 00:27:25.040 --> 00:27:31.380 the proprietary boundaries that surround us. They surround all of us. This is true even 263 00:27:31.380 --> 00:27:41.100 When we learn to respect one another, irrespective of our opinions or our color or our nationality 264 00:27:41.100 --> 00:27:48.180 or our language or our condition in life or whatever it is, we recognize the basic fact 265 00:27:48.180 --> 00:27:53.620 of life. And the right of the other party to operate within his boundaries, whether 266 00:27:53.620 --> 00:27:58.580 we like the way he operates within his boundaries or not, is none of our business. As long as 267 00:27:58.580 --> 00:28:05.140 As he stays within his boundaries and operates there, he can do as he pleases because he 268 00:28:05.140 --> 00:28:14.820 is not hurting us. Oh, he may offend our sensitivities. He may look in such a way that we don't like 269 00:28:14.820 --> 00:28:20.220 his looks. Or he may have habits that offend us. Well, fine. Leave him alone. Turn your 270 00:28:20.220 --> 00:28:25.040 back on him. Go someplace else. Maybe he talks in a way that you don't like. Or maybe his 271 00:28:25.040 --> 00:28:33.680 His appearance offends. So what? He has a right to operate over himself any way he wants 272 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:38.920 to, providing in so doing he doesn't trespass your boundaries. And your boundaries don't 273 00:28:38.920 --> 00:28:44.280 include him. You can't own him. That's slavery. You can't rightfully control him. 274 00:28:44.280 --> 00:28:50.040 The only person you can rightfully control is yourself. And the extension of yourself, 275 00:28:50.040 --> 00:28:55.440 Your Property. If you want to eliminate or at least reduce the area of human conflict, 276 00:28:55.440 --> 00:29:01.480 let's begin recognizing that and realizing that we are going to operate much more salubriously 277 00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:10.640 —that's a good word—in a situation in which we have respect for each other and don't 278 00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:13.920 violate one another's property. Thanks very much.