by Michael Greaney

Created on: June 20, 2008

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict, religious differences aside, is rooted in a mistaken notion held by many people in the modern world. A preponderant number of people have the fixed idea that a thing can only have one owner, whether a private individual or the State. This has, in part, accounted for the rise and acceptance of both capitalism and socialism, systems that concentrate ownership of the means of production in as few hands as possible, usually in the name of "efficiency." This results in a form of economic totalitarianism.

Unfortunately, all forms of totalitarianism (while they occasionally start off as more or less efficient) quickly become the most inefficient of social systems. Concentrated control of business or politics is by its very nature conflict-ridden, pitting individuals and groups against each other, often with the sole aim of maintaining the current power elite in its privileged position. Dividium et imperium ("divide and conquer") is an effective, if grossly inefficient and contra-human path to power, twisting the whole concept of personal power from the legitimate and necessary control over one's own life, to controlling the lives of others. Totalitarianism is directly contrary to the nature of the human person, each individual having a dignity and sovereignty that transcends mere political or economic expedience.

The idea that one group, and one group only must have possession or title to a specific piece of real estate is contradicted both by human nature and actual experience. The corporate form of organization, while often stigmatized as contrary to human nature or beyond human scale, is actually an example of humanity's inherent political nature in action. The corporation allows many people to participate in the ownership or operation of a single thing. When the full rights of private property are protected and passed through to the shareholders of a corporation, the owners (whether minority or majority) are "connected" to the thing owned in the closest manner possible within a society regulated by a system of just laws.

Thus, the corporate form has inherent within it the capacity to satisfy competing and equal claims on the same thing, whether that be a business or a political entity. The corporation, after all, was only applied to business relatively late in the game. Towns and cities were incorporated (given the status of "persons") long before anyone thought to incorporate a business. It was and remains unnecessary to split up

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