created: `=dateformat(this.file.ctime, "DDDD, HH:mm")` updated: `=dateformat(this.file.mtime, "DDDD, HH:mm")` tags: #technologicallove/connections related notes: [[ownership]], [[stewardship]] # essence Ownership is a distinct but related concept to stewardship. [[Ownership]] is total [[control]] over a [[being]]. [[Stewardship]] is the responsibility to [[care]] for that being. Ownership is never complete and is often toxic. When we exert total control over something, we often fail to properly account for the the wellbeing of the controlled. This can lead to disease patterns where the owner abuses or inadequately cares for the object and where the object hurts the owner due to its not being well. There can also be significant externalities to ownership whereby total control over a being excludes the healthy relating of that being with others. We believe that stewardship should completely supplant ownership, where the steward both has the responsibility to care for the object and the right to benefit from whatever the object wishes to give back to the steward. For example, if I own 100 acres of forest without restrictions, I may cut down all of the trees, sell them as lumber, and extract value from this forest. However, this has a negative impact on the wellbeing of the trees, of the surrounding forest, of any animals or plants or other beings or spirits that have come to depend upon this forest and were in relation with it. If I am the steward of the forest, I have an imperative to care for the forest and may ask the forest if I could cut some trees down to make room for a home and use the lumber for the construction of the home. I may ask anything I wish to of the forest that I steward, but I must respect the response. If I have not yet learned to listen, then I must not yet act (see [[technologies of power and understanding]]).