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Tolstoy, Etc
Most people seek after what they do not possess and are thus enslaved by the very things they want to acquire -- Anwar El-Sadat
The Egyptian leader Anwar El-Sadat spoke in condemning terms, towards the end of his life, of the enslaving nature of every human being's impulse to better him or herself through acquisition. He did so, not as a detached observer, but after personally wrestling with one of the most formidable and intransient struggles over land that the human species has waged during modern history. In his own lifetime, before being assassinated, Sadat was able to reach some state of accord with the Israeli leader Begin at Camp David. The two leaders created an equitable arrangement about the land under dispute, but only after their people had endured many years of conflict.
However, Sadat spoke as a man leading a country that already had a certain level security in the territory his people possessed, unlike the Palestinians who currently struggle over the Israeli's land. Furthermore, Sadat was still quite zealous in his own people's claim to the land under consideration...
A desire for land can be enslaving to a people, true, and can form a fixation and a source of crippling hatred. Yet what is the alternative, one might ask -- to be stateless, wandering without a home or a national identity? Land and the possession of land also offers a certain level of security, perhaps one of the reasons human beings are particularly willing to be enslaved to this desire, as opposed to desires for possessions such as fame or wealth.
The desire for home and a homeland, or for land in general, may in fact have biological origins. For instance, the biologist Desmond Morris' discussion of "Territorial Behavior" offers a Darwinian caveat to Sadat's condemnation of the enslaving nature of land. Although Morris might acknowledge the potentially enslaving potential of a desire for land, Morris also states that the survival of human beings as a species lies in our primitive, primate's territorial urges for dominance and species self-preservation. The desire to possess the land for one's biological offspring, as observed during…
Land Use Terms Land Use The author of this response is asked to define a few terms. There are three terms in total and all of them relate to land use and land rights in some manner or form and how personal land ownership rights are juxtaposed against that of a land owner or a government that wishes to take ownership of land for public use, the latter of which is commonly
The wealthy mine operator has a good reason to pretend he doesn't get Leopold. This is the root of the problem with Leopold's idea: it requires people to think too much against their natural tendencies. It is the natural tendency of essentially every other creature on Earth to find a niche and stay put, being constrained from unlimited growth by predators and the availability of food and water. This is
Leopold further asserted that human beings were not superior to others in their ecological system since every one has an important role to play especially the land. The idea that "The Whole informs the part" was also critical to understanding Leopold's land ethic. The author maintains that man needs to understand and appreciate the other members of the universe in order to determine his place in it. The one
This dilemma brings the Kelo case to the forefront of public policy debate. The Kelo case involved "New London, a city in Connecticut, using its eminent domain authority to seize private property to sell to private developers. The city said developing the land would create jobs and increase tax revenues" Oyez.org. 2005). The plaintiffs contended that the takings by the city were not designed for public use but rather private
The Economic Development Council is an organization that is helping business to relocate to McLean Country through a number of programs to include: providing vision / direction, recruiting / developing new businesses, improving the community and providing oversight / investor relations. ("About EDC," 2010) While the Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission is helping to restore a number of areas that are vital for redevelopment efforts. These different elements are important,
In Don DeLilo's White Noise, the relationship between humanity and the environment in discussed in light of the television news coverage of catastrophes, and this discussion demonstrates the kind of hyper-conservation emergent as a result of the modern media environment. In particular, White Noise enacts a prediction made by Aldo Leopold in his essay "The Land Ethic," by showing how the dominance of the television has created a divide between