Early Jan 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
http://theconversation.com/why-canadians-need-the-right-to-roam-100497
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-backcountry-users-seeking-right-to-roam-bolstered-by-court-decision

When roaming I operate as if 'No Trespassing' sign have no moral authority. If the sign simply means 'no hunting or ATVs' then I'm in compliance; if the sign is just put-up by a territorial jerk I would ignore it on principle. The whole infrastructure of capitalism and insurance companies is as abstract as is it is immoral; the nature, animals and exercise are real and immediate. Even if you convinced me of the necessity of such laws, my rational brain would never buy it because a lifetime of 'trespassing' has given me immeasurable joy at the price of 1 or 2 awkward (but not hostile) encounters.  I feel that same about piracy.

So it was encouraging to discover that the 'right to roam' is a real thing in Northern Europe.

Why Canadians need ‘the right to roam’ wrote:
On April 24, 1932, 500 young workers trekked uphill toward Kinder Scout, the tallest of the hills in England’s Peak District.

The plateau was posted against trespassing — locals called it “the forbidden mountain.” Games-keepers hired by land-owners and armed with clubs caught wind of the trespass and waited near the top.

Five of the “ramblers” were arrested by police. But the walkers had successfully crossed a milestone. From that day, laws slowly began changing: The ancient English right of public access to, and responsible use of, private lands was returning to the people.

Canadians (outside Quebec) are heirs to the British system of common law. Parallel to the British experience, there also existed in Canada a population that freely hunted, fished and traversed territory they considered a “commons.”

But in a series of events not entirely dissimilar from the violent enclosures in England, Scotland, and Ireland, the historic denizens came to be considered undesirable to landowners embracing new forms of market economy. They were forced from their homes through starvation and by outright acts of bloodshed and terror, expulsions sanctioned by courts and reinforced by acts of Parliament.

Notice the sequence of events in the phrase "the ancient English right of public access to, and responsible use of, private lands was returning to the people." Roaming is not a new right, it is not progressive, it is the re-emergence of a right that had been torn away from the public by capitalist ("landowners embracing new forms of market economy") using "bloodshed" and the "courts" to grab common land. State-capitalists don't like sharing the bounty of the planet, they think it is "theirs" because they "bought it" with the windfall of cash-tokens they made exploiting other humans, animals and ecosystems.

At core, I just hate the feeling in capitalism that "locked off" is the default setting to everything, where every space on the planet belongs to some human with a pile of tokens, because the truth I've lived is that unless you put up fences with razon-wire I'm roaming through. I don't step on lichen and my hands no longer mindlessly strip leaves. I understand the 'Tragedy of the Commons' but versus captialism's 'everything is locked' and it's 'Tragedy of the Relentless Rape of the Planet and its People by Capitalism', I think the balance is out of wack. So I enjoyed discover these extensive these 'rights to roam' - including "Scotland, where you can hike through someone’s backyard with clothes on the line" - can be. Saner cultures.

Time for a song that enraptured me a kid and has never lost its appeal...