The Earth Belongs To No One

Wall of Voodoo: Call of the West

The first man who,
having fenced off
a plot of land,
thought of saying,
This is mine
and found people
simple enough to
believe him
was the real founder
of civil society.
How many crimes,
wars, murders,
how many miseries
and horrors
might the human race
have been spared
by the one who,
upon pulling up the stakes
or filling in the ditch,
had shouted to his fellow men:
Beware of listening
to this imposter.
You are lost if you forget
the fruits of the earth belong to all
and that the earth belongs to no one.
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Discourse on Inequality