Essay: Ownership

Consider…

Communities are entities and their inhabitants belong to them, not the other way around. They are composed of everyone in them, they are rich in life and art, in ideas and motions and sounds and smells. Power and wealth create illusions of ownership, but all illusions dissolve in time: lives come and go, all part of the whole, a whole that is lifetimes and generations long.

These entities grow and change over time, they evolve as living things do. To bind them to one form, hold them to one idea or model of perfection is to kill them. There are many ruins in the world to attest to this.

So, consider rotating any idea in your head that the community, the city or nation belongs to you or to any single group of people, any single ideology. Stop thinking it is your city, your neighborhood, your state, your nation. Stop trying to impose your ideas, your values, your beliefs on the whole thing.

Give up your notions of supremacy.
Give up your assumptions of privilege.

Give up the hubris.