Land, Owning land, Sharing land, Defending land, Etc.

[barnhart]

Thanks for that post P+T, I also thought of the Diggers (and the Levellers) in this discussion but I was too lazy to research what they actually wrote. The Levellers had less to say about private ownership but their beliefs on equality and representation stood against the land ownership and control systems they were living in.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

Thanks for that post P+T, I also thought of the Diggers (and the Levellers) in this discussion but I was too lazy to research what they actually wrote. The Levellers had less to say about private ownership but their beliefs on equality and representation stood against the land ownership and control systems they were living in.

Yeah, the Levellers didn't call themselves that, it was a term of derision at the time. The Levellers just wanted some sort of democratic structure to the English government, where land owning men would all get a say in the government through a vote (similar to the system started with the new American government about 100 years later).

The Diggers were also called that derisively... the name they called themselves was "The True Levellers" because they thought The Levellers didn't actually care about equality enough. The Digger/True Levellers wanted a world where no one ruled over another, but where work, and the fruits of work, were the common mission and joy of all men in cooperation. The True Levellers were called "The Diggers" because that's what they did... dig up a part of the Commons to be used for planting crops for their community.

The Anabaptists also didn't choose that name for themselves... it was a derisive term. I'm realizing how common that is throughout history. History is written by the victors, even the names of certain groups who were not victorious in making their ideas mainstream.