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The
property may be sacred according to some; a theft, according to
others. Both camps refuse to realize it is a burden. It has
to be maintained, nurtured, cared for, and defended. It makes
you feel responsible and takes you down to earth when the inspiration
calls you elsewhere. The eye of the needle is too small for the
camel-property to pass through. (Contrary to Matthew 19:24, philologists
have shown that it is not the camel which is supposed to pass
through the eye of the needle--it would be downright ridiculous--but
a camel-hair rope.)
The
Rightful and the Just
The
respect for property is a mark of civilization. A man of property
is assumed to be proper, and concern with property suggests respect
for propriety. The capitalist ideology founded the property rights
on the habeas corpus, i. e. on the unquestionable authority over
one's body. Indeed, the property is the natural extension of one's
body, a body strained in the effort of producing it, or subject
to the risk of mutilation when fighting for it. It is also the prize
for the bright that managed to play skillfully the games of exchange.
The right one has to possess what one has created, conquered, bought
or inherited (since there is a natural continuity between my body
and those of my ancestors) stems from the fundamental right one
exerts over one's body, mind and soul, wherein lie power, patience,
courage and talent. The respect for property is equivalent to the
respect for the human being.
The
laws that protect and guarantee the right to one's property provide
the framework wherein the drama of possession is performed. This
drama enacts the tense confrontation between the subject and the
object, the desire that arises from it, and its most improbable
fulfillment. Indeed, while the property is tangible and, as such,
can be protected, possession is illusory; hence, deceptive. To what
extent can we possess what we rightfully own? How long can we preserve
what by chance we once possessed? These are questions which puzzle
and obsess the righteous, as well as the just. Examining the issue
of property in cyberspace may provide such questions, if not with
appropriate answers, at least with some meaningful refinements.
The
Site Collector
The
cyber-surfer who falls into temptation while exploring a site thinks
more often than not that he can fulfill his desire for possession
by simple commands such as copy-and-paste or save-as, thus creating,
almost painlessly, his own collection. This will be hosted at his
own site, much in the same way connoisseurs filled their homes with
precious acquisitions in other times. However, the appropriation
of multimedia information, picked here and there, points to the
failure of possession in a more clear-cut way than art collecting
ever has done.
"You
treat me like an object, like a painting from your collection,"
cries out Lady Hamilton (as portrayed by Vivien Leigh in Alexander
Korda's 1941 patriotic movie). The title character is a "new woman"
in revolt against aristocratic values. "You probably ignore how
much I cherish my paintings," replies the dignified husband. The
connoisseur is sensitive to the energetic emanations of the works
of art and wants to be exposed to their daily influence. The property
of a hand-made artistic object is akin to the property over a prestigious
body. The painting and the sculpture preserve the corporal imprint
of the movements of their creator, the surge of his or her energy.
Unlike the case of the manufacturer's workmanship, here one deals
with a more rare, highly gifted body to be possessed. The amateur
desires the artist's body in order to expose himself to the personal
energetic aura the object is still capable to emanate.
We
encounter nothing of the kind in the case of the site collector.
The information he gathers--as delightful as it can be--has no intimate
relationship to the cyber-smith's body, so no interpersonal interaction
occurs. Moreover, the possession relationship is reversed. Exploring
a site made up of chunks selected from the Web suggests a fragile
identity of its owner, molded and fashioned by the informational
objects he had idly selected. The appropriation of information is
no longer a sign of power, since it does not involve either fight
or payment; it is no longer the occasion for self-improvement, since
it does not trigger any intimate encounter. Once the identity of
the collector is defined by his choices, it results that the property
has come to possess the possessor, in the sense Blake uncovered
when claiming, "One becomes what one beholds." Once the relationship
to information is mostly visual, devoid of corporal involvement,
the dissolution of self-ownership is almost certain.
When
Property Becomes Possession
There
is, however, a means to turn property into a possession: by assimilation.
I undoubtedly possess what I eat, since this raw material becomes
part of me, part of my body, my energy, my life. The desiring is
overcome by the devouring; the food is initially destroyed, but
then it is transmuted. I possess what I eat not because I sweep
it off from being, but because I transform it into my being. It
is easy to extend this pattern of relationship to other objects
of desire than food. One is thirsty for knowledge, hungry for information.
One devours a book, swallows many a story, hunts for advice, and
absorbs instruction. In such cases, the destruction is nonexistent;
possession involves only symbolic deconstruction, which leaves the
symbolic object intact, while providing the "bricks" for another
object to be constructed from. A book is not possessed by buying
it and putting in on a shelf, nor by reading it with delight and
immersion (in this case the book possesses you), but by penetrating
its meanings, weighing up its partial truths and making it obsolete
by writing another one.
The
same holds for cyber-possession, which transfigures cyber-property.
The cyber-surfer who does not get immersed in the delightful diversity
of multimedia, but keeps his awareness alive by critical appraisal
has the opportunity to reach possession by disregarding property.
In the French 17th century remake of the Odyssey, the hero claims
he is a little bit of all that he had met. The cyber-surfer is also
a selection of sites. However, if the fragments gathered are sufficiently
small and their re-composition innovative and meaningful, the wondrous
transmutation of cyber-appropriation into cyber-possession becomes
possible.
Copyright
© 2000 Adrian Mihalache All Rights Reserved
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