Who Owns The Earth? Who Will Defend The Earth?

–by Noam Chomsky (Jul 19, 2013)

With wrenching tragedies only a few miles away, and still worse catastrophes perhaps not far removed, it may seem wrong, perhaps even cruel, to shift attention to what may seem to be more abstract prospects, uncertain ones, but ones that might offer a path to a better World – and not in the remote future. I’ve visited Lebanon several times, moments of great hope, and also of despair, tinged with remarkable determination to overcome and to move forward. The first time I visited – if that’s the right word – was exactly 60 years ago, almost to the day. My wife and I were hiking in Israel’s northern Galilee one evening, when a jeep drove by on a road near us and someone called out that we should turn back: we’re in the wrong country. We had, inadvertently, crossed the border, then unmarked, now I suppose bristling with lethal armaments.

A minor event, but it brought home forcefully a lesson that I knew, but perhaps not clearly enough. The legitimacy of borders – for that matter of states – is at best conditional and temporary. Neither have inherent legitimacy. Almost all borders have been imposed and maintained by violence, and are quite arbitrary. The Lebanon-Israel border was established in the interests of British and French imperial power, with no concern for the humans who happened to live there, or even the terrain. It makes no sense, which is why it was so easy to cross unwittingly.

Surveying the terrible conflicts in the world, almost all are the residue of imperial crimes and the borders they drew in their own interests. To take just one of many, Pashtuns have never accepted the legitimacy of the Durand line, drawn by Britain to separate Pakistan from Afghanistan; nor has any Afghan government ever accepted it. It is in the interests of today’s imperial powers that Pashtuns crossing it are labeled “terrorists” so that their homes are subjected to murderous attack by drones and special forces under President Obama’s global terrorist campaign. Much the same is true worldwide.

There are few borders in the world so heavily guarded by sophisticated technology, and so subject to impassioned domestic rhetoric, as the border separating Mexico from the United States, two countries with amicable diplomatic relations. The border was as usual established by violent aggression, the most wicked war in history, in the words of General Ulysses S. Grant, later President, who fought in it as a young officer. The border was fairly open until 1994, when President Clinton initiated Operation Gatekeeper, militarizing it. Before, people had regularly crossed to see relatives and friends. It is likely that Operation Gatekeeper was motivated by another event in that year, imposition of NAFTA, the mislabeled “free trade agreement” – and the term “imposition” is accurate since the populations of the participating countries were opposed.

Doubtless the administration understood that Mexican farmers, however efficient they might be, cannot compete with highly subsidized US agribusiness, and that Mexican businesses cannot compete with US multinationals, which must receive “national treatment” in Mexico under the NAFTA rules. That would almost inevitably lead to a flood of refugees across the border, joining those who to this day are fleeing from the ravages of Reagan’s murderous wars in Central America in the 1980s.

There are indications of erosion of borders and the cruel hatreds and conflicts they symbolize and inspire. […]

Blurring of borders and challenges to the legitimacy of states bring to the fore serious questions about who owns the Earth. Who owns the global atmosphere that is being polluted by the heat-trapping gasses that have now “passed a long-feared milestone,… reaching a concentration not seen on the Earth for millions of years,” with awesome potential consequences, so we learned a month ago? Or to adopt the phrase used by indigenous people throughout much of the world, who will defend the Earth? Who will uphold the rights of Nature? Who will adopt the role of stewards of the commons, our collective possession? That the Earth now desperately needs defense from impending environmental catastrophe is surely obvious to any rational and literate person. The differential reactions to the crisis are a most remarkable feature of current history. In the forefront of the defense of Nature are those called “primitive”: indigenous, tribal, First Nations in Canada, aboriginal in Australia, and in general the remnants who have survived the imperial onslaught. In the forefront of the assault on nature are those who call themselves the most advanced and civilized, the richest and most powerful nations.

The struggle to defend the commons takes many forms. In microcosm, it is taking place right now in Taksim Square, where brave men and women are protecting the last remnants of the commons of Istanbul from the wrecking ball of commercialization and gentrification and autocratic rule that is destroying this ancient treasure. As the mainstream press has come to recognize, theirs is “the cry of those who want to have their voices heard, who want to have a say in how they are governed.” The conflict over the remnants of the commons is “about control versus freedom… What’s at stake is more than a square. It’s the soul of a nation.” Given Turkey’s prominence, the outcome of the struggle is sure to have a large impact on others throughout the region. But even more than that: the defenders of Taksim Square today are at the forefront of a worldwide struggle to defend the global commons from the ravages of that same wrecking ball – a struggle in which we must all take part, with dedication and resolve, if there is any hope for decent human survival in a world that has no borders, and is our common possession, to defend or to destroy.

–by Noam Chomsky. Commencement speech by the 84 year old on June 14, 2013, at the American University of Beirut. The video of the speech starts at 39:18 and ends at 56:21. [Creative comic above by Dharma Comics ;-)]

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