It is ours, yous and mine, along with all of the millions of species with whom we share this land. Birds, cats, dogs, squirrels, cows, sheep, fish, insects, plants--the whole biosphere.
Concerning delusion, I'm reminded of the great short summary of "A Course in Miracles":
"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing Unreal Exists. Herein lies the peace of God". Trouble is humans are so deluded, they cannot discern between the real and the unreal, and in their confusion hence have no peace.
I didn't know Woody Guthrie was the father of Arlo Guthrie, until I read about him just now. Anyway, thank you for the post Perry, and all the best for 2025.
A beautiful piece, Perry. Thank you for opening our eyes to this very real imbalance, which is true of every country really. Let's continue to raise awareness and hold on to Hope. 🙏🤍
Greed is in our nature. We are wired for it. To remain alive since our earliest days as a species there was a biologic imperative tons quite and consume resources. Greed's instantiations are facilitated from inequality. Inequalities in physical, political, and economic strength. Greed produces a society of more inequalities. There is a malign snowball effect.
So long as we are each born unequal to all.others, unique, our genetics and personalities differing annd we are alive and need to consume- there will be greed and inequality.
There is no level playing field as conservative propaganda has it. Not all people can ever be rich, no matter how hard they work, no matter how virtuous or intelligent they are. There never will be a level playing field.
Three children sit at a dining table. Their mum has placed on it an uncut round cake, three plates and a cake cutter. Left to their own devices, will the children ever come up with a fair distribution? There is a way to achieve objective fairness. But it is all but impossible to achieve subjective satisfactions.
There is evidence that earlier humans, before 12,000 BC, shared and had greater degree of cooperation than modern capitalist humans.
If this is the case, if greed and exploitation has been normalized to such an extent, that it can't be uprooted, well, Michael, then we can expect the eventual extinction of homo sapiens. Nature will see to that.
As to the cake analogy and children, they can be taught at a young age about sharing, cooperation and caring. Competition is not innate for most humans. It is an outlier. Most humans can and do cooperatre. But when greed becomes part of a system, it, hyper-competition seems normal.
like your response very much! Cooperation is a subject of great interest in social science and Axelrod's "Evolution of Cooperation" was one of those seminal books, like Thomas's "Lives of a Cell, Rawls's "Theory of Justice" and Sen's t"Collective Choice and So isl Welfare" that really shaped my own thinking back then (I'm oldI) I could talk endlessly about the interwined concepts of cooperation, fairness, distributive justice etc. woven like a DNA helix into our current academic thinking, but I think you've covered most of the bases already. Thanks for your brilliant essay, Perry.
Hm, I grew up during the 70’s and remember singing this song often in school. We loved it as we played in the desert, mountains, hills and beaches. That was a different time. We did the hard things for those who depended on us and enjoyed the freedom to travel (or so I thought). Thank you for jogging my memory and giving me food for thought as well as a welcome treat to listen to a legend.
How wonderful to hear and read of the never ending commitment to share and share alike. What better time to remember and if it suits you to share bread at www.feedingamerica.com a truly good charity.
Yes, lets start with David G! There is a North American tradition worth recovering. Leaving for a moment the fork in the road in 19thC with Henry George, there is Alexander Del Mar. There is Islamic banking in our own time. Interesting stuff. On family holiday here, so catch you early next year.
It's about time governments printed their own money and stopped borrowing money from the banksters and paying interest on it - totally non-logical (except for the bankers that is).
For us Brits, I say bring back the 'Bradbury Pound' and expand the cash economy. The money-as-debt-conjured-up-out-of-nowhere-and-then-charging-interest-on-it banking system, is the root of all evil, globally.
Yes, good ol usury, the exhorbitant charging of interest. It has caused so much debt, so much societal harm. David Graeber has written a excellent book on this very topic of Debt. I wish this topic would be widely discussed.
I remember reading that the Catholic Church was at one time against usury. I hope that this is still true, since they still hold a lot of influence.
How did it get to be, the Greed of the 1% controls all life?
I learned that song when I was in 4th grade, and I often imagined those ribbons of highways. It would be the inspiration for me to take roads less traveled to see those valleys, mountains lakes rivers and deserts..in Canada too. I've lived on the east coast and the west coast, grew up on Lake Erie, and now I am in the South. Each area has it's own culture...that which those greedy rulers want to destroy and replace with their one world collective...where we will certainly Own nothing and be happy. Interesting how those that rule can hypnotize us into their fantasy worlds. with their wordspells and man made laws. When they have taken everything will we finally wake up, when the illusion is revealed, will we finally wake up. What will we have learned? What will we do to change things for the better? What is the middle ground when we realize that we were not meant to OWN anything, and that we actually can be happy.
I agree, Karafree. It does seem like an illusion, that people are under some sort of spell, sleep-walking through life, missing out on the beauty, grandeur and truth of Nature. This is one consequence of greed--it closes you off to the land of the living.
But I find that more and more people are awakening from their slumbers. Being around Nature--the trees, the fields, the birds, the squirrels, etc.--certainly helps in the awakening and the healing.
We can keep on speaking such messages of encouragement.
Wonderful article, Perry. I love this song, one of my all time favorites and really appreciate how you've included it along with the Canadian lyrics which are new to me. The song in its entirety is so deeply resonant with the human experience as a part of the natural world.
It's a great song, one that helped me learn to play guitar, the way that One Tin Soldier helped me learn to play piano. Music has the same kind of uplifting energy that being in nature gives us. Happy Holidays, Perry.
Another great article Perry, and I couldn't agree with you more . I smiled when I read the title as I immediately thought of the song, and as a fellow Canadian, I appreciate you placing our version of it here. I also remember singing it in the ‘60s. This past week I read John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In search of American (1962). A quick scan of my underlined words found this : "I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction", and this was written 60 years ago! His well written prose and turn of phrase reminds us of what we have lost through greed, and consumerism. I appreciate Nature, all of it, and often hike where I live (BC), so herein is a quote that highlights how the Land does indeed belong to all who dwell here, and even more vitally, that much of that land existed long before we were here, and will exist afterwards : "The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time".
Thank you, Wendy, and thank you for the reference to John Steinbeck, one of my favourite writers. I love Steinbeck's books and have read all of his works, starting with Of Mice and Men in high school in 1973, which I reread later as an adult. I loved Travels with Charley (1962), and also noted Steinbeck's observations on how America was beginning to lose its regional distinctiveness.
All the more so today with its increased destructiveness in the name of progress. Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell rings true.
I saw the redwoods when I visited California. Giant and impressive, as is the age of these trees. What have they seen in 2,000 years? One of the many wonders of Nature is how it remains the same.
Steinbeck is a favourite of mine as well, and I have reread his books over the years, for as we live life, we appreciate his prose even more so. And , yes Big Yellow taxi profoundly resonated with me when I first listened to it. I'm assuming you've never been to BC. Here we have many redwoods, but they were planted here. Even close to Vancouver city there are abundant old growth forests still standing, all fairly easy to access. Throughout the lower mainland, immigrants planted vast forests, and when they passed away, they bequeathed that land for a park to the city. Stanley Park is famous, but there are multiple others. On Vancouver Island, Cathedral Grove is a stunning and magnificent Archway of Redwoods, which one must drive through to get to Port Alberni, along the coast. I think the post-war immigrants honoured nature in their home country, and wanted their new home to have the same bounty of beautiful nature. I appreciate that they did so. I often sit beneath an old growth tree, stilled and grounded there. May I presume you've read The Hidden Life of Trees?
Thank you. I attended a talk at UBC by her. But, somehow I forgot about her book, so I appreciate the recommendation and look forward to reading it. It's purchased now! The vast acreage that is adjacent to the University of BC offers endless ways to enjoy nature. Have you been there?
No, I've never been to Canada. Must be a beautiful place. I don't travel much in planes. I live in central Portugal in the underdeveloped countryside, having moved from Cornwall in the U.K. The pace is slow but people are still connected with the heart, and the land. And very resilient and self-sufficient. I like that.
BC is a beautiful province Canada. I moved from Ontario, Canada, which has stunning natural Northern areas, to attend university and never went back . Today , people seem less connected with heart and land. I feel how it affects them, plus the hustle and often dreariness that inhabits people who live in metropolis cities. How fortunate you are to be in in a slower paced place. It is my plan to move soon to inhabit such a place.
I have not read the book, but only reviews. I have read other works on how trees communicate with each other to protect themselves from threats. Very interesting. Trees are not mere pieces of wood or fibre. Trees are living breathing beings.
Oh yes, it is so interesting, I've read the research. Perhaps this is why I find sitting beneath these living being so grounding. They live communally, connected and sharing resources, supporting and warning one another; what a stunning example for humanity to follow.
I have been to Vancouver a few times, and have visited Stanley Park, the last time in 2006. I also visited Victoria once in the late 90s. Enjoyed the visits.
Great article Perry. I resonate. I guess it all starts with the man in the mirror. What part will I play? I’ll live into that question. As for the song -As a Canadian, I only know the Canadian version. It was nice to hear the American lyrics. Lightfoot’s The Canadian Railroad Trilogy comes to mind with some poetics to pause deeper. In the end, everything we try to own, we leave behind. It was never ours. It’s nobodys. It’s everybodys. No possessive on the end. Maybe what doesn’t get named is all that survives?
Yes, this land belongs to you and me is not about ownership, but about sharing. With the whole biosphere. A tough nut to crack. Yet, the land will outlive us all, even the billionaires!
Perfect gift for the season of giving! This land is our land and no Fascist army, stock exchange, false prophet, Svengali, billionaire(s), anarchist "president", corrupt government, foreign actor, or false flag event can take it away from us. HAVE A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY AND NEW YEAR! Gregg
Thoughtful essay, Perry. Greed truly is a disease that permeates much of human society. I think this is why some of us seek out those small moments of connection to Nature. Those connections and encounters remind us that there is more here than hustling for money and trading time for profit.
I used to believe that many of the problems in society resulted from the 3 poisons of greed, anger, and delusion as described in Buddhist literature. But now, I think the source of the problem is simply delusion. Delusion of what is real and what is important in life.
One of the delusions is that acquiring and hoarding money will lead to happiness. In other words, taking. It is the opposite. Studies show that giving and helping others, including other species, is the true source of happiness.
Concerning delusion, I'm reminded of the great short summary of "A Course in Miracles":
"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing Unreal Exists. Herein lies the peace of God". Trouble is humans are so deluded, they cannot discern between the real and the unreal, and in their confusion hence have no peace.
I didn't know Woody Guthrie was the father of Arlo Guthrie, until I read about him just now. Anyway, thank you for the post Perry, and all the best for 2025.
Thank you, Joshua. A happy new year to you and your family.
A beautiful piece, Perry. Thank you for opening our eyes to this very real imbalance, which is true of every country really. Let's continue to raise awareness and hold on to Hope. 🙏🤍
Greed is in our nature. We are wired for it. To remain alive since our earliest days as a species there was a biologic imperative tons quite and consume resources. Greed's instantiations are facilitated from inequality. Inequalities in physical, political, and economic strength. Greed produces a society of more inequalities. There is a malign snowball effect.
So long as we are each born unequal to all.others, unique, our genetics and personalities differing annd we are alive and need to consume- there will be greed and inequality.
There is no level playing field as conservative propaganda has it. Not all people can ever be rich, no matter how hard they work, no matter how virtuous or intelligent they are. There never will be a level playing field.
Three children sit at a dining table. Their mum has placed on it an uncut round cake, three plates and a cake cutter. Left to their own devices, will the children ever come up with a fair distribution? There is a way to achieve objective fairness. But it is all but impossible to achieve subjective satisfactions.
There is evidence that earlier humans, before 12,000 BC, shared and had greater degree of cooperation than modern capitalist humans.
If this is the case, if greed and exploitation has been normalized to such an extent, that it can't be uprooted, well, Michael, then we can expect the eventual extinction of homo sapiens. Nature will see to that.
As to the cake analogy and children, they can be taught at a young age about sharing, cooperation and caring. Competition is not innate for most humans. It is an outlier. Most humans can and do cooperatre. But when greed becomes part of a system, it, hyper-competition seems normal.
like your response very much! Cooperation is a subject of great interest in social science and Axelrod's "Evolution of Cooperation" was one of those seminal books, like Thomas's "Lives of a Cell, Rawls's "Theory of Justice" and Sen's t"Collective Choice and So isl Welfare" that really shaped my own thinking back then (I'm oldI) I could talk endlessly about the interwined concepts of cooperation, fairness, distributive justice etc. woven like a DNA helix into our current academic thinking, but I think you've covered most of the bases already. Thanks for your brilliant essay, Perry.
This just dropped from Australia... read
Iyah May’s bio... talented, courageous, and inspiring!
https://youtu.be/y29kmnhjtc8?si=4outwevdgykwWLfb
Hm, I grew up during the 70’s and remember singing this song often in school. We loved it as we played in the desert, mountains, hills and beaches. That was a different time. We did the hard things for those who depended on us and enjoyed the freedom to travel (or so I thought). Thank you for jogging my memory and giving me food for thought as well as a welcome treat to listen to a legend.
It was different times; I write about it often. We seemed, as kids, to have more freedom, more outdoor adventures.
How wonderful to hear and read of the never ending commitment to share and share alike. What better time to remember and if it suits you to share bread at www.feedingamerica.com a truly good charity.
Thank you Nettie for your comment and the link to the food charity.
Yes, lets start with David G! There is a North American tradition worth recovering. Leaving for a moment the fork in the road in 19thC with Henry George, there is Alexander Del Mar. There is Islamic banking in our own time. Interesting stuff. On family holiday here, so catch you early next year.
best to all
Yes, all the best.
Good writing good thinking Perry and everybody.
In 2025 I would like to think and talk about Usury. I think we need to. It is a very ancient subject.
It's about time governments printed their own money and stopped borrowing money from the banksters and paying interest on it - totally non-logical (except for the bankers that is).
For us Brits, I say bring back the 'Bradbury Pound' and expand the cash economy. The money-as-debt-conjured-up-out-of-nowhere-and-then-charging-interest-on-it banking system, is the root of all evil, globally.
Yes, good ol usury, the exhorbitant charging of interest. It has caused so much debt, so much societal harm. David Graeber has written a excellent book on this very topic of Debt. I wish this topic would be widely discussed.
I remember reading that the Catholic Church was at one time against usury. I hope that this is still true, since they still hold a lot of influence.
How did it get to be, the Greed of the 1% controls all life?
I learned that song when I was in 4th grade, and I often imagined those ribbons of highways. It would be the inspiration for me to take roads less traveled to see those valleys, mountains lakes rivers and deserts..in Canada too. I've lived on the east coast and the west coast, grew up on Lake Erie, and now I am in the South. Each area has it's own culture...that which those greedy rulers want to destroy and replace with their one world collective...where we will certainly Own nothing and be happy. Interesting how those that rule can hypnotize us into their fantasy worlds. with their wordspells and man made laws. When they have taken everything will we finally wake up, when the illusion is revealed, will we finally wake up. What will we have learned? What will we do to change things for the better? What is the middle ground when we realize that we were not meant to OWN anything, and that we actually can be happy.
I agree, Karafree. It does seem like an illusion, that people are under some sort of spell, sleep-walking through life, missing out on the beauty, grandeur and truth of Nature. This is one consequence of greed--it closes you off to the land of the living.
But I find that more and more people are awakening from their slumbers. Being around Nature--the trees, the fields, the birds, the squirrels, etc.--certainly helps in the awakening and the healing.
We can keep on speaking such messages of encouragement.
Lets continue to paint this view.. To imagine it in. We can change this world for better.
Wonderful article, Perry. I love this song, one of my all time favorites and really appreciate how you've included it along with the Canadian lyrics which are new to me. The song in its entirety is so deeply resonant with the human experience as a part of the natural world.
Thanks Heidi. This song speaks a universal language of sharing and cooperation, one reason for its continued popularity. 🦜🐦🕊
It's a great song, one that helped me learn to play guitar, the way that One Tin Soldier helped me learn to play piano. Music has the same kind of uplifting energy that being in nature gives us. Happy Holidays, Perry.
Do you still play an instrument? My favorite is singing, so that’s about as portable as I can get.:)
I played trombone in the band, but failed to keep up after graduation. Yes, I love to sing. Arya often joins me. lol.
Birds are the best singing teachers.
Yes, music and nature actually complement each other. Music was very important in my childhood, as well. Four years of hs band.
Another great article Perry, and I couldn't agree with you more . I smiled when I read the title as I immediately thought of the song, and as a fellow Canadian, I appreciate you placing our version of it here. I also remember singing it in the ‘60s. This past week I read John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In search of American (1962). A quick scan of my underlined words found this : "I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction", and this was written 60 years ago! His well written prose and turn of phrase reminds us of what we have lost through greed, and consumerism. I appreciate Nature, all of it, and often hike where I live (BC), so herein is a quote that highlights how the Land does indeed belong to all who dwell here, and even more vitally, that much of that land existed long before we were here, and will exist afterwards : "The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time".
Thank you, Wendy, and thank you for the reference to John Steinbeck, one of my favourite writers. I love Steinbeck's books and have read all of his works, starting with Of Mice and Men in high school in 1973, which I reread later as an adult. I loved Travels with Charley (1962), and also noted Steinbeck's observations on how America was beginning to lose its regional distinctiveness.
All the more so today with its increased destructiveness in the name of progress. Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell rings true.
I saw the redwoods when I visited California. Giant and impressive, as is the age of these trees. What have they seen in 2,000 years? One of the many wonders of Nature is how it remains the same.
Steinbeck is a favourite of mine as well, and I have reread his books over the years, for as we live life, we appreciate his prose even more so. And , yes Big Yellow taxi profoundly resonated with me when I first listened to it. I'm assuming you've never been to BC. Here we have many redwoods, but they were planted here. Even close to Vancouver city there are abundant old growth forests still standing, all fairly easy to access. Throughout the lower mainland, immigrants planted vast forests, and when they passed away, they bequeathed that land for a park to the city. Stanley Park is famous, but there are multiple others. On Vancouver Island, Cathedral Grove is a stunning and magnificent Archway of Redwoods, which one must drive through to get to Port Alberni, along the coast. I think the post-war immigrants honoured nature in their home country, and wanted their new home to have the same bounty of beautiful nature. I appreciate that they did so. I often sit beneath an old growth tree, stilled and grounded there. May I presume you've read The Hidden Life of Trees?
"Finding the Mother Tree" by Canadian Forest Ecologist Susan Simmard is also a great book, and account of someone's (family) life in Canada.
Thank you. I attended a talk at UBC by her. But, somehow I forgot about her book, so I appreciate the recommendation and look forward to reading it. It's purchased now! The vast acreage that is adjacent to the University of BC offers endless ways to enjoy nature. Have you been there?
No, I've never been to Canada. Must be a beautiful place. I don't travel much in planes. I live in central Portugal in the underdeveloped countryside, having moved from Cornwall in the U.K. The pace is slow but people are still connected with the heart, and the land. And very resilient and self-sufficient. I like that.
BC is a beautiful province Canada. I moved from Ontario, Canada, which has stunning natural Northern areas, to attend university and never went back . Today , people seem less connected with heart and land. I feel how it affects them, plus the hustle and often dreariness that inhabits people who live in metropolis cities. How fortunate you are to be in in a slower paced place. It is my plan to move soon to inhabit such a place.
I have not read the book, but only reviews. I have read other works on how trees communicate with each other to protect themselves from threats. Very interesting. Trees are not mere pieces of wood or fibre. Trees are living breathing beings.
Oh yes, it is so interesting, I've read the research. Perhaps this is why I find sitting beneath these living being so grounding. They live communally, connected and sharing resources, supporting and warning one another; what a stunning example for humanity to follow.
I have been to Vancouver a few times, and have visited Stanley Park, the last time in 2006. I also visited Victoria once in the late 90s. Enjoyed the visits.
Great article Perry. I resonate. I guess it all starts with the man in the mirror. What part will I play? I’ll live into that question. As for the song -As a Canadian, I only know the Canadian version. It was nice to hear the American lyrics. Lightfoot’s The Canadian Railroad Trilogy comes to mind with some poetics to pause deeper. In the end, everything we try to own, we leave behind. It was never ours. It’s nobodys. It’s everybodys. No possessive on the end. Maybe what doesn’t get named is all that survives?
Yes, this land belongs to you and me is not about ownership, but about sharing. With the whole biosphere. A tough nut to crack. Yet, the land will outlive us all, even the billionaires!
Perfect gift for the season of giving! This land is our land and no Fascist army, stock exchange, false prophet, Svengali, billionaire(s), anarchist "president", corrupt government, foreign actor, or false flag event can take it away from us. HAVE A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY AND NEW YEAR! Gregg
Yes, indeed, Gregg; and happy holidays and a new year of giving and love.
Thoughtful essay, Perry. Greed truly is a disease that permeates much of human society. I think this is why some of us seek out those small moments of connection to Nature. Those connections and encounters remind us that there is more here than hustling for money and trading time for profit.
I used to believe that many of the problems in society resulted from the 3 poisons of greed, anger, and delusion as described in Buddhist literature. But now, I think the source of the problem is simply delusion. Delusion of what is real and what is important in life.
One of the delusions is that acquiring and hoarding money will lead to happiness. In other words, taking. It is the opposite. Studies show that giving and helping others, including other species, is the true source of happiness.