England's King Charles III is also head of state in several former colonies, now members of the British Commonwealth.
Recently, after addressing the Australian parliament, he was heckled by a senator descended from aboriginal Australians:
"You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people."
We need not linger on the absurdity of blaming poor Charles, who suspended cancer treatment to make a state visit to Australia, for actions taken long before he, his parents, or even his grandparents were born.
There is also the fact that Charles' royal ancestors going back to Queen Victoria, under whom Australia was colonized, "reigned but did not rule."
They were not responsible for the government's policy decisions, which were made by prime ministers responsible to Parliament.
Still, the demand to "give us our land back" (spoken on behalf of Australia's indigenous population) is worthy of comment.
This demand appears to lie in the same dimension as the "land acknowledgements" that are currently fashionable among American liberals.
Oddly enough, the attitude underlying "give us our land back" also animates today's conservatives — in America and elsewhere — who are hostile to immigrants: our ancestors were here first, and our rights are violated by new people who were not born here coming in. "Stop the invasion!"
The only difference is that our current anti-immigrant leaders do not claim to speak on behalf of "first peoples."
This is just as well, since our European, Asian, Latin American, and African ancestors were not the first people to inhabit North America.
Those claiming the rights of "first peoples," liberals proclaiming "land acknowledgements," and conservatives bad-mouthing recent immigrants — all of these people are basing their conclusions on a simple principle: first come, first served.
But as H. L. Mencken might put it, this principle is "simple, clear, and wrong."
Perhaps the best explanation of why "first come, first served" is deeply and fundamentally wrong was written during the 19th century by the American economist and philosopher Henry George:
"Has the first comer at a banquet the right to turn back all the chairs and claim that none of the other guests shall partake of the food provided, except as they make terms with him?
"Does the first man who present a ticket at the door of a theatre, and passes in, acquire by his priority the right to shut the doors and have the performance go on for him alone?
"Does the first passenger who enters a railway carriage obtain the right to scatter his baggage over all the seats and compel the passengers who come in after him to stand up?"
The land upon which any country exists was not created by the people who currently live there. In fact, the land was not created by any human being, past or present.
To put it in religious terms, it's a gift from God.
In purely secular terms, it is a gift from nature.
No individual or group of individuals has a right to wall off specific parts of this gift and exclude other people from coming into them.
On a planet beset by impending climate change, many people may be forced to flee from areas that have become uninhabitable. . . or die.
They will have to go somewhere where they were not born. Attitudes like those afflicting "first peoples" champions, land-"acknowledging" liberals, and anti-immigrant conservatives will stand in the way of peaceful adjustment to climate disaster.
We desperately need to figure out how we can all share those parts of the world which remain inhabitable as the climate worsens.
The maximum legitimate political demand is equality before the law.
Rather than claiming privilege because of where we, or our ancestors, were born, when are people in general going to recognize that we are all in the same boat, no matter where we or our ancestors were born?
Paul F. deLespinasse is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Computer Science at Adrian College. Read Professor Paul F. deLespinasse's Reports — More Here.
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