Man ordered from home on Quebec gold mine (ca.news.yahoo.com, August 4, 2010)

“Ken Masse’s childhood house is the last obstacle standing in the way of a multibillion-dollar mining project in the town of Malartic. But he has refused to budge.”

“Masse, 35, balked at lucrative offers for his mother’s home and stared down an expropriation order….”

A judge has awarded Osisko Mining Corp. possession of the property.

“The reclusive, thick-bearded man has said his fight wasn’t about money, but about protecting property rights and the environment from a massive open-pit mine.”

“Masse was the lone holdout from a relocation project that saw Osisko buy out 204 of 205 homeowners ….

Masse stood up for the principle of property rights when everyone else caved.

Property rights means the owner decides whether to sell or not.

Property rights means the owner decides the price at which he is willing to sell.   In this case, he demanded more.

Property rights means the owner can ignore any offer, and all intimidation and all propaganda, and refuse to sell.

Property rights means liberty.

Property rights means he shouldn’t have to go court, and make errors in court, or be caught up in drama where people get offended.  None of that should be necessary.

Property rights is an ideal that we should all hold close to our hearts.  It is fundamental to freedom.

The government is allowed legally to expropriate property but that doesn’t mean it is right to do so.   We rationalize the end result because the promises in the propaganda seem so positive, and because the forces behind expropriation seem so “important” and overwhelming and special.  Always, there are more “special” people than ourselves bossing us around.  They know what’s best for all of us and love us up every chance they get.  Sure they do.

The excuse given for generations has been in the name of the “economy”, which usually means handing over all the initiative in our lives to big business and government-backed projects – often to do with war – instead of people doing their own thing.    We would have all been better off  if our ancestors had refused to go along with massive projects in the past that polluted and confiscated their property in the name of “the economy” or the “war effort”.

These excuses just means that someone else with more power than us, for some reason, calls the shots.  Why do we allow that state of affairs to exist?  Why aren’t we in charge of our own lives?  Why is someone else’s  goals more important than ours?

Mining could be a very good thing if we lived in a society that respected property rights – property rights for individuals, for communities, and for native tribes.

But we don’t.   We live in a society of force, and propaganda and bullies –  bullies that set themselves up on pedestals and wear nice suits, or robes.

Notice all the loaded B.S. in this story:

Masse has a beard.  The article really emphasizes that.  It is a “thick” beard.  That’s really key.  It tells us we’re supposed to think he is very eccentric, even though men have been wearing beards for thousands of years.  We’re “not supposed” to do that for some reason.

The people who know him feel sorry for him.  He’s so “isolated”.    His property has been stolen by an overwhelming force, but we’re all going to obsess over his mental well-being.   Obviously it’s supposed to be insane that a family would believe they actually had control of their property.

I mean, you’re supposed to just cave in and bow to easy money – the pittance they offer you as they bully you and steal your home  – because easy money is God.  And mining companies are God.  And the promise of jobs is God. That’s the collectivist thinking.  All those things are supposedly more important than the rights of some stubborn old-fashioned guy with a beard.

This is what you’re supposed to say:   “What was he reading?  What was he smoking?  What was he thinking?  How strange!  How sad!  And that beard.  Man, nobody wears thick beards like that.  It just goes to show you.   And $350,000 they offered!   Why, that’s a fortune!” No, it’s not.

Then there is all this guff about the “market value” being a few thousand dollars – on top of a potential gold mine.  As if there is a free market.  The privileged class, the well-connected class – they call the shots and make the declarations about other peoples’ property.   What a joke.  What a ridiculous fantasy land where the majority all do what they’re told and lick boots like a pack of ineffectual powerless sheep, as if they’re going to get anything.

But someone who tries to stand up for his mother and himself, and get what he is entitled to, he is portrayed as the one to be pitied as if he’s the one with the problem.  No, he’s not the one to be pitied.

---

---

Related: Bugs Bunny:   Homeless Hare

Bugs quotes:

“Didn’t you ever hear about the sanctity of the American home?”
“After all, a man’s home is his castle”.