A World After Its Own Image

From the Introduction: ""The right of landownership," wrote a young Karl Marx, "has its source in robbery" ("Early Writings" 103). This robbery, we might speculate, has existed since time immemorial. Indeed, history itself might be conceived as a series of unending robberies; lapping waves of violent displacement. We might imagine that these waves of displacement, unending cycles of taking and taking-back, are natural. And indeed, we can begin from this hypothesis: land is held through a natural violence, or a threat of violence. When one becomes incapable of holding on to a space of land, another, stronger, comes in to take ownership. Violence, in the case of the domination of land, can take both material and ideological form. The threat of physical violence, an idea of violence, is often enough for an individual, or a social class, to maintain land holdings. "