Whose land is it, anyway?

A favorite old Woodie Guthrie song is likely impossible to sing today: “This land is your land, this land is my land / From California to the New York Island / From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream Waters / This land was made for you and me.”

Instead, woke authors may acknowledge, “I come from usurper ancestors.” Woke conferences may display and begin with a land acknowledgment, recognizing that the event is occurring on land colonialists took from a particular indigenous tribe. The indigenous people are considered the rightful owners because they were there first.

It is certainly true that North America was once sparsely populated by many nomadic tribes. Under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, Europeans arrived and drove the natives into restricted areas – reservations – while building farms, factories and cities on what were once hunting grounds. Many shameful things were done – tribes were massacred, treaties were broken, and the natives were starved by slaughtering buffalo, their food source. Some of the indigenous people who remained became assimilated, a few stayed on the reservations and preserved their language and culture, and many are now impoverished, demoralized and dependent wards of the state.

Other blights on America, of course, include slavery.

While not excusing Americans, slavery and population displacements by invaders have occurred throughout history. There is no perfect society to emulate – either in history or in today’s world. Those who are proclaiming the unmitigated evil of America are not holding up a model to follow, but rather calling for burning the country down, apparently so that a mostly non-Christian, non-white utopia can replace it.

The indigenous people who were first displaced cannot have their property restored – if they even had a concept of property. They may not even have any recognizable descendants. And what of the people here now, who acquired whatever they have according to the laws of the land, and had nothing to do with slavery or other atrocities? Some of us are descendants of European settlers who conquered the wilderness and built the most prosperous country in history. Some are descended from slaves brought from Africa. Some chose to come here legally and adopt this country, becoming naturalized American citizens. Is this our country?

Are we to be displaced by millions entering illegally, many of whom do not wish to become Americans or live in a country like the one America used to be?

Who owns the land is also a burning question in many other places – such as Israel. The Jews have the closest thing to a deed conferred by the Almighty. After the defeat of Canaan, the 12 tribes of Israel were each given a designated area of land. But how many Jews today know which tribe they belong to? The modern State of Israel was created in 1948 by a U.N. resolution, on part of the land controlled by the British Mandate of Palestine created by the League of Nations after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. It was immediately controversial because Arabs already lived in the area. Now demonstrators around the U.S. chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.” Some demonstrators may not know which sea, or which river, but the most important question is the meaning of “free.” Judenfrei (free of Jews)?

One may ask, “Shouldn’t the most persecuted people in the world have a homeland?” Jews are said to be the most persecuted ever.

But don’t non-Jews deserve a homeland also – maybe the one they have already lived in for centuries? How about Irishmen or Hungarians? In Ireland, it is a crime to object to migrants overrunning the formerly peaceful country. Hungary is considered a pariah for wishing to preserve its identity and not allowing the entrance of the migrant flood.

And what about Ukraine – literally the “borderlands“? For centuries, it was a battleground for competing empires. Its more recent boundaries were established not by God but by Lenin and Stalin. While Ukraine fights Russian invaders, much of its land is reportedly being bought up by foreign investors.

What can bring peace? A peaceful order was created in 1648, ending the bloody Thirty Years War in Europe – the Peace of Westphalia. This established the principle of state sovereignty: Each nation was to be equal to the others, and none could interfere in the internal affairs of others. World War I destroyed the stable order in Europe. Current conflicts, centered in Ukraine, may be deciding a new world order: global hegemony or Westphalian multi-polarity. The concept of national sovereignty is under attack, despite the pretense of support for a sovereign, independent Ukraine. Will the long-sought world government finally be achieved?

One vision is a worldwide caliphate: Allah owns the world, and Islamic law should rule everywhere. Opposing that view, while possibly making use of the chaos jihadists create, is the secular globalist view – manifested in meetings at Davos. Its prime objective, like that of communism, is the abolition of private property.

If globalists triumph, the answer to the question “Who owns the land?” is “You don’t.”

You won’t even own the land under the 300-square-foot tiny home you will be allowed to rent as long as you are compliant. The vast “public-private partnership” aims to control everything, including your thoughts and your soul.

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