From: Greg Burch (gregburch@gregburch.net)
Date: Sun Dec 02 2001 - 06:59:13 MST
Re: terrorism, what it is and what should never be ----- Original Message -----
From: Smigrodzki, Rafal
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2001 10:54 PM
> I do not believe that ancient claims to
>land should be acknowledged in any way -
>the only claim to land is one gained by
>growing up there or by being accepted by
>the land's current owners. If you leave your
>land (under duress or on your own accord),
>your children who are born somewhere else have
>no claim to that land anymore.
This can't be right, Rafal. I come to your home with a gun and tell you that I have decided that I like your house and the land upon which it sits. I've decided that you must leave, so that I can have it. I back up my argument with the gun in my hand. Wisely or unwisely, you leave, and I take possession of your house.
Let us assume that you had good title to your land and house, for which you paid money. Now, let us assume that you have children after leaving your house at gunpoint, and then you die. You are saying that your children have NO claim to the property you were forced to vacate, simply because I or my descendants continue to believe that my forced expropriation was somehow right?
This result is not the law in any civilized society, and thus the children of, for instance, people from whom the Nazis stole works of art are able to recover them from, for instance, museums that now hold them.
The law governing the simple case I describe is much more difficult to apply when those who make competing claims have some basis other than mere force upon which to base those claims, and when claims are based on truly ancient sources or, worse yet, religious sources. But principles other than simple possession MUST be applied to resolutions of such conflicts, or security in one's life and property is truly impossible.
Greg Burch
Vice President, Extropy Institute
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