Making the statement "You gotta do it, otherwise you have no life" in relation to getting as drunk and stoned as possible and going to work the next day hungover does nothing but show just how boring you really are and unable to make your own life an interesting exploration of alternative possibilities.

Ownership

"I am convinced that no one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the World without owning it."

- Paulo Coelho

The only thing a person can ever – truly – own is themselves.

 
The idea of ownership is based on possession and means towards possessing, but the two are very different qualities. Possession is to acquire from without and to have a means of physical control over it, though that control may be tenuous depending on the object; ownership is to have full control and to relegate all influences to a lesser position. In this respect, you can never own me, because I relegate you to a lesser position; your law, your rules, your ideas are nothing but words that I choose – that I choose! – to allow to have an influence over me – nothing more.

A person may acquire material objects through financial means, they may say "I own these because I paid for them," but this is no different than a thief re-acquiring the same objects and saying "I own these because I stole them." In both cases, possession is this 'thing' that is referred to as 'ownership'.

True ownership has no acquisition. It simply exists. "I own this because I have absolute control over it, and nothing will ever change that." You can take all my possessions away from me, you can take me hostage, you can deprive me of my identified rights, but I will always have full control over the self, over my thoughts – free my hands and legs from these chains and this mind will determine what is done with them.

This even extends to what is called 'under duress' for it is still I in ownership of myself that makes the decision to carry the crime forward. Many would face death than commit the crime, others are little concerned with the crime and value self preservation first.

I guess there are those who would say that this is all self-evident and nothing to get excited about, but I still meet many people who cling to ideas and grievances that rule their world as though they are afraid that by relinquishing control over what they cant control, everything will fall apart. But control is so fickle and only ever subject to its own subjects, which seems self defeating in the long run. Control of the self is a given, and subject to itself is filled with its own choices.

Possession & Ownership: A Conversation

Warstub says:
i find it weird that people are so possessive about material objects.

Ness says:
where did that come from?

Warstub says:
I borrowed a couple of CDs off Adam without asking. I did it once before to a friend of his and his friend got really pissed off then I did it to Jamie. I find it strange because people put such a huge emotional weight on ownership of things that can go away, yet you lose a finger and its a more casual loss.

Ness says:
I don't really think that it's about the things you took more than the fact that you didn't tell them you wanted to borrow them till after you took them.

Warstub says:
that might be true, but it doesn't really matter because they place an emotional weight on an event that has not lost them anything other than a material object. It's sad, because I know by doing this, I set myself apart from them. And they, or at least Adam, thinks that it borders on being a genuine thief, but that's not what it's about. Its about ridding myself of the concept of possessions having ownership of me, and only me having ownership of me. They say that possession is 9/10th of the law, but the truth is that if you possess it then you own it.
Even Christians preach about the dangers of material objects owning you.

Ness says:
the thing is.... its fine about ownership of one's self and possessions not owning you, and all that, but it doesn't give you the right to go and take what ever you feel like

Warstub says:Well it does actually. It is only our concepts of law, justice and as you say 'rights' that stop people from taking whatever they like, but they are purely concepts created for the sake of society's well-being as a communal entity. Proven by the fact that people who don't believe in that do go and take whatever they like without asking.

Ness says:you mean thieves

Warstub says:as they are labeled

Ness says:okay.... but there are other parts of the concepts of law, justice and rights that you still do adhere to. you still walk down the street with clothes on, you don't take things from shops - or do you?

Warstub says:
The only reason i don't take from shops or walk down the street naked is because I don't want to go to prison. That is purely a consequence of an action - not a belief in right or wrong.
I will back-track a little on that though. I believe in the society that I live in, it's ideals and goals, to allow me the chance to do the things in my life that I want to do without harming others - that is something I believe in. I know that I need to stop my CD thieving off friends because its harming our relationships - but thats a consequence of an action. I still wish that they could let go of feeling bruised by an act that has practically no impact on their own selves. They allow the de-possession of a material object to affect them, in a way that it shouldn't (imo).

Ness says:
but you know.... being brought up in the society as it is today, it's very hard to let go of material objects. We're bombarded with the message that material objects equal wealth, or happiness, or satisfaction....

Warstub says: how do we let go of that and care more for the human beings that we are, rather than the objects we own?

Ness says:especially when to care more for yourself is seen to be self centred

Warstub says:One must learn to love themselves, before they can love another - and old but very wise truth.
Ness says:yeah

I care about self ownership, because self is the only thing that can be owned forever.

The only thing I own in this world is my self. Everything else is to be done with as I will.