Aloha good peoples,
I was watching a bit of City TV news last week and saw a piece on this guy who lives under the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto who was being 'evicted' by the city because the city had planned repairs to the expressway:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_2952.aspx
For those of you who do not live in Toronto, the Gardiner is a raised freeway which runs across the bottom of the downtown core along the lakeshore. It would be prime real estate, if not for the monstrosity of the actual freeway.
The background of this story (such as it is) is that Chris, who goes by the last name of Gardiner, started to live under the expressway in 1988 and built himself a little three room home there. A couple of months ago, the city notified him that he would have to vacate the premises because of the planned repairs. He refused to leave claiming that no one should have to pay to live on God's earth, and that city officials would have to forcibly remove him if they wanted him gone. Homeless advocates and poverty groups banded together to protest alongside him, so that when the eviction date came and went, the police had to remove not only Chris, but several other protesters as well. Seven of the protestors were arrested. City officials have said they will find Chris somewhere else to live. For details you can click here:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_2961.aspx
So, it seems that Toronto is the place to go to squat. This man lived rent free in downtown Toronto for 16 years before anyone did anything about it. I wouldn't mind living downtown, but I can't really afford a condo at Spadina and the Lakeshore. My place down there would cost at least $350K, plus maintenance fees, plus property taxes. This is why I don't live downtown; I like to have money for other things as well, like food and clothes. Granted, my place is a little nicer than his place looks. I have lots of amenities that he doesn't have (like hot and cold running water), but I pay for those amenities.
His argument is that people shouldn't have to pay to live on God's earth. That's a nice little argument, but it's impossible to prove. Let's not get into the whole 'does God exist argument' for the sake of argument, and stipulate that there is a God. How do we know that the earth belongs to God? How do we know that it doesn't belong to Bill Gates?
The bottom line is that we live in a capitalistic world whether we like it or not. This is not a choice. It's like suggesting that we have a choice as to whether or not we are born, or where we are born. We can protest capitalism and we can protest the nature of what society has become, but we can't simply deny it and expect everyone else to go along with it just because we want them to.
Our ancestors decided many moons ago to form the society of which we are now a part. If we want to change society, we can do that too, but not by simply not following the rules of society. I know I seem to harp about this a lot, but we agree to the terms of the social contract for many reasons. This man was benefitting from the shelter of the Gardiner Expressway, and benefitting by being a member of society (albeit a fringe member by choice) but was not contributing in the same way that is expected of every other free citizen who has reached the age of majority. That behaviour does not uphold the social contract. Once people stop meeting their obligations to the social contract the fabric of society will disintegrate. (I know, that seems extreme, this is only one guy who wants to live under a freeway, but I'm trying to make a point.) It's as though he's saying 'I'll obey some of your rules because they fit in with my lifestyle, but I don't really like these other ones, so I won't bother with those, but you guys can still provide me with the same benefits'. If every member of society picks and chooses which norms to follow, we will have chaos and society will revert to a state of nature.
And, as we know from Thomas Hobbes, life in a state of nature is 'nasty, brutish, and short.'
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/item/books-978039396798/0393967980/Leviathan?ref=Search+Books%3a+'thomas+hobbes'
I don't want that... do you?
Until next time peeps, peace out
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