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‘for the enjoyment and benefit of the People.’
Photo: bing.com
Steve Szeghi PhD (ECON), Professor of Economics, Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio, USA
“In a day and age when new forms of enclosure and privatization continuously stalk the globe, endangering indigenous wildlife and indigenous populations; Yellowstone remains a wonderful example of the power of common ownership and common purpose working for the common good of not merely humanity but of all the species of the family of nature of which we are a part.”
Yellowstone was established as a National Park in 1872 by Act of Congress. It was explicitly created to protect a beautiful natural landscape, the many species of animals who reside there, and ‘for the enjoyment and benefit of the People.’ The Northwest Gate of Yellowstone is inscribed with the motto ‘for the enjoyment and benefit of the People.’ Through the many decades of its existence as a National Park, millions and millions of people have enjoyed the Yellowstone experience. People are reminded upon entry that they are visitors even as Yellowstone is home to many animals. Care for the Park, the value of stewardship, of marveling at the beauty about while minimizing impacts is today implanted in the mind of visitors.
Yellowstone is a truly transformative and empowering experience. I know because it was for me, just as it was for my children, as for millions of other visitors. I was only ten years old the first time I saw the herds of Buffalo, the Moose, the Elk, and the Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone National Park. I remember walking the steep trail to the brink of the lower falls. I remember my Dad telling me, “This Park belongs to you, to me, to all Americans, we all own it together.” He went on to say, “In many other countries rich people would build their summer homes in such a beautiful place and the rich would fence out the common people, but in the United States beautiful places like these should and often did belong to all of the people.” My eyes opened wide marveling at the beauty all around me, relishing the idea that I owned what I saw, that rich people could not fence me out, could not deny me the experience of such a place. My sense of pleasure was in no way diminished by the fact that all other Americans also owned such a place together with me. Quite the contrary the sense of common ownership, of common purpose, of common stewardship of the land and nature welled up within me as a deep source of pride and intense satisfaction.
Photo: thewowstyle.com
Roughly twenty years later I took my children to Yellowstone, many times, but the first visit was perhaps the most memorable and delightful. I watched as their eyes opened with wonder. I saw the delight on their faces as they saw the herds of buffalo, the moose, the elk, and then one day the grizzlies. One of my daughters is now a Professor of Environmental Literature. And one of my daughters works for the National Park Service as an Archaeologist.
The concept of a National Park of celebrating common ownership over vast tracts of land was a counter to the enclosure movement and privatization which had been gaining ground for quite some time, at the time Yellowstone was established in 1872. Public and Common Ownership grounded in rules and regulations which protect the land and the animals, provide at the same time and in the same place, the best of human enjoyment and conservation of the environment and ecology. Shortly after its establishment as a National Park, a couple of herds of Buffalo found refuge in the high mountain pastures, surrounded by the many majestic peaks, geysers, and forests of Yellowstone. The Buffalo were routinely and systematically killed throughout the American West in order to deny to American Indians both a source of food and their way of life. Today all genetically pure buffalo are descendants of the herds that found refuge in Yellowstone. Grizzly bears survived in Yellowstone and in Glacier National Park even as they went into extinction elsewhere in the lower 48 states.
Of course many mistakes were made during Yellowstone’s existence which endangered both wildlife and the many geothermal features of the park. In certain respects people loved both the animals and park features too much. Consequently rules were put into effect to force people to keep a respectful distance, to be able to appreciate and enjoy without doing harm. As an example laws were established making feeding the bears and other wildlife illegal within the park. People are now encouraged to keep a respectful distance from the animals just as it is now illegal to swim in or to otherwise damage geothermal pools and springs.
There are no doubt, many mistakes still made, many which stem from overuse. But as ecological understanding and love for the earth and other species grows, new rules and regulations will take shape. It is precisely the Yellowstone experience which gives people such an appreciation of nature, that it engenders a deeper and deeper desire on the part of those who visit, as well as those who may never visit but nonetheless learn of Yellowstone, to safeguard the environmental treasures not merely of the crown jewels of American public lands, but of all the elements of nature throughout the world. The Yellowstone experience makes us all more profoundly environmentally conscious. The power of Yellowstone spurred the establishment of many other such National Parks not just in the United States but throughout the world. It has also spurred and inspired even stronger environmental protections such as Wilderness designations as well as the effort, will, and energy required to protect nature, the environment, biological diversity, and ecological systems, generally throughout the globe.
Yellowstone is a powerful reminder and example of the need we have as human beings to do things together, to share the bounty and beauty of nature together, and together to both appreciate the beauty and the wonder of the natural world, and to therefore bind ourselves to rules and regulations which safeguard such beauty and splendor. In a day and age when new forms of enclosure and privatization continuously stalk the globe, endangering indigenous wildlife and indigenous populations; Yellowstone remains a wonderful example of the power of common ownership and common purpose working for the common good of not merely humanity but of all the species of the family of nature of which we are a part.
ABOUT KAMRAN MOFID’s Blog and GUEST BLOG
KAMRAN MOFID’s Blog: Dedicated to the Common Good- aiming to be a source of hope and inspiration; enabling us all to move from despair to hope; darkness to light and competition to cooperation. “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it”. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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KAMRAN MOFID’s GUEST BLOG: Here on The Guest Blog you’ll find commentary, analysis, insight and at times provocation from some of the world’s influential and spiritual thought leaders as they weigh in on critical questions about the state of the world, the emerging societal issues, the dominant economic logic, globalisation, money, markets, sustainability, environment, media, the youth, the purpose of business and economic life, the crucial role of leadership, and the challenges facing economic, business and management education, and more.
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Where has the the Common Good gone now?
Director Ken Loach's new film revisits the year that Britons turned to socialism – and ushered in the NHS, public ownership and the concept of public (not private) good.
“Loach says he was motivated to make the documentary because the achievements of the Attlee generation were at risk of being reduced to a footnote to Thatcherism. "People talk about Thatcherism all the time," he says. "I felt it was important to record the memories of those almost written out of history who upheld the spirit of '45. Today, the market penetrates everywhere. It's time to put back on the agenda the importance of public ownership and public good, the value of working together collaboratively, not in competition."
The American philosopher Michael Sandel, in the Reith Lectures in 2009, warned that the priorities of the shareholder and the "values" of the marketplace were brutally damaging the civic pulse. "A politics of the common good invites us to think of ourselves less as consumers and more as citizens," he said. It is these themes of citizenship and the common good that run through The Spirit of '45 like an electric charge, underlining the absence of these values from so much of public discussion and culture now.”…
Ray Davies, robust, articulate and dignified, aged 83, veteran campaigner, a Labour councillor in Caerphilly for 50 years, sits in a Spanish civil war beret and recalls the time, in 1945, when he was 15 and had already worked two years underground in Welsh mines.
” "In those days, it wasn't safety that came first, it was coal," he says. "We were in the pit and the message came down – 'Labour's won by a landslide!' Tough, hard miners had tears streaking down their faces, black with dust. They said, 'Ray, this is what we've dreamed about all our lives. Public control of the railways and mines and banks, jobs and housing. We are going to have a health service!' " Ray's voice still resonates with the thrill of it all. "We owed trillions to the Americans at the end of the war, we had nothing, but we said, 'Knickers to the debt. We are going to put this country back on its feet.' And we did! The average life expectancy of a miner was 42 years. Then that began to creep up. It was wonderful to see how things improved for the ordinary man and woman."
Ray Davies is one of a number of octogenarian "stars" of The Spirit of '45, an uplifting documentary by the film-maker and master chronicler of ordinary lives, Ken Loach. It celebrates 1945, a pivotal year, and its brief aftermath, during which socialism was proudly endorsed and openly promoted by a Labour leader, Clement Attlee. On the stump, Winston Churchill had failed to convince when he attempted to link socialism and "the gestapo". Booed and heckled, he was then trounced by the electorate.
“June Hautot, 76, another of the film's stars, still lives in the house in south London where her mother died when June was 11. Her father, a railway worker, had been wounded in the war but before the NHS was set up couldn't afford to be properly treated, or to take time off work. June's mother, in her 40s, developed breast cancer that spread to her spine. The family belonged to one of several thousand private insurance schemes that only partially met the cost of sickness.
"You had to pay the doctor five shillings before he'd even put his foot over the threshold," June recalls. "My older sister and I used to care for my mother but then the NHS arrived, overnight, and we didn't have to do it any more. A district nurse arrived. It was absolutely wonderful." In 2012, Hautot famously confronted the then health secretary Andrew Lansley in Downing Street, shouting "Shame!" and accusing him of privatising the NHS. "Tony Benn says 'People change things not politics.' I believe that," she says. "Nobody is taking the NHS away from us. Nobody."…
Lest We Forget: Read the rest of this must-to-read article and remain accountable to history whilst cherishing what we have. Stop the march of privatisation of our essential services. Let us learn from the lies of Thatcherism
The Spirit of '45: where did it go?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/mar/02/spirit-45-ken-loach-nhs-history/print
The Spirit of '45 opens in cinemas on 15 March. There will be a nationwide screening with a live Q&A with Ken Loach and special guests at 3pm on Sunday 17 March. See thespiritof45.com for more details and participating cinemas.
On 3 June 2011 I wrote a blog under the title of “The Broken Model”. Due to its relevance to the above, I wish to note it once again:
“Do you remember that Margaret Thatcher, the so-called Iron Lady!! She told the Brits that she was going to put the “Great” back into the “Great” Britain. Do you remember? Then, she told us this can only happen if we accept and implement the “Washington Consensus”, the so-called dreaded neo-liberalism. She told us that there was no alternative. She told us we will all prosper and develop more fairly and equitably. She won election after elections. Everything was privatised, deregulated, self-regulated. Industry, manufacturing, (the real economy) was destroyed. Instead, the banks and the bankers were encouraged to rule the world. The economists with no principles and values were “bought” and the business schools, such as Harvard and Columbia were showered with money to act as “Cheer Leaders” for the dreaded neo-liberalism (see the Inside Job for evidence). Communities were dis-mantled and dis-organised. We were told that there is nothing as a society and community. We are all in it just for ourselves, we were told. Destructive competition at the expense of life-enhancing cooperation, collaboration and dialogue was greatly prompted. We were told to say no to love, kindness, generosity, sympathy and empathy and say yes to selfishness, individualism and narcissism, as these values will fire the engine of capitalism and wealth creation! In short, the hell with the common good, we were encouraged to believe.
We were brained-washed. Our other Prime Ministers repeated her nonsense and have carried on her footsteps. It is now over 30 years since the neo-liberalism experiment in Britain. Are we any “Greater” than we were in 1979? Are we any fairer or more equitable? The country is nearly bankrupt, with public and private debt at unprecedented levels, with greatest levels of poverty and wealth disparity ever. The house of neo-liberal capitalism is now at its nadir of decadence.”
Read More: People’s Tragedy: Neoliberal Legacy of Thatcher and Reagan
Further Readings:
How shaming the poor became our new bloodsport
Politicians have taken the lead in blaming poverty on the poor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/03/blame-poor-poverty-barbara-ellen/print
We cap benefits but not bonuses. How on earth are we 'all in this together'?
The 'big society' has become rhetorical window-dressing for an massive and unprecedented assault on the most vulnerable
Why we are occupying Sussex University
Plans to sell off nearly all non-teaching services will mean the university splits along producer-consumer lines
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/01/why-we-are-occupying-sussex-university/print
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Stéphane Hessel, writer and inspiration behind Occupy movement, dies at 95
Hessel, resistance fighter, diplomat, writer of Time for Outrage! and co-author of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dies
The French president, François Hollande, said of Hessel: 'He leaves us a lesson, which is to never accept any injustice.”
“From his childhood in Berlin and then Paris, where he was brought up by his writer and translator father, journalist mother and her lover in an unusual ménage à trois, to his worldwide celebrity at the age of 93, when a political pamphlet he wrote became a bestselling publishing sensation and inspired global protest and the Occupy Wall Street movement.
And then there was everything in between: his escape from two Nazi concentration camps where he had been tortured and sentenced to death, his escapades with the French resistance and his hand in drawing up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday, just a week after his last big interview was published, Hessel's long and extraordinary life came to an end. He was 95 years old, but as one French magazine remarked: "Stéphane Hessel, dead? It's hard to believe. He seemed to have become eternal, the grand and handsome old man."
Le Point magazine added that the man with an "old-fashioned politeness and elegance from another age" had "danced" with the best part of a century.”…- Iran: Thank you Jack Straw for your honesty and just reading of history
- Your Body, Soul, Mind, Health, Happiness and Volunteerism for the Common Good
- Sir Richard Branson and “Ubuntu”: “I am because you are”
- The Path from Badland to Goodland: Economics for the Common Good
- Can Capitalism Survive Without Trust and Regulation?