Sacramento Meditations, Part III. On devaluing Land, 1976-77

Sacramento Meditations, Part III. On devaluing Land

III. On devaluing Land
A land division system operates such that the State of California is divided into
cities and Indian reservations
counties, public (non-consumable) and private (exploitable) land and the private
sector further subdivided by private ownership, where the size of the parcel is
determined by the financial capability of the individual who possesses it and the
use is limited by legal codes biased toward exploitation, independent of long
term ecological consequences
A land consuming system operates such that public (communal lands) are so
designated and preserved from private exploitation only when there is clear and
present danger that one resource must be preserved in order to exploit another
Or
When private interest has not yet developed the vision,
technology or market to make exploitation profitable
Or
Where a public consensus has developed that a given piece of land has aesthetic
features of sufficient communal value to preserve it from private consumption
and private exploitation cannot muster sufficient energies to override that
consensus
Or
When communal guilt has established legal barriers to consumption