The Nomadic Alternative – Page 262

can only occur in conditions of surplus "when the needs of the

individual are surpassed", or as Rousseau saw, "when one man has

enough for two".

Some will object that the social arrangements of the wandering

or[ae?] irrelevant to us. But the notion of equivalence continues

to inform the blueprint for all human behaviour. When the rich cover

their castles with sculptures, the poor feel themselves deprived

of sculptures. And if the traumatized rich defend their 'things'

with the defensive ferocity that should be reserved for wild

animals, the deprived poor imagine the rich to have a monopoly of

well-being. By holding onto possessions instead of sharing them,

the rich themselves behave like animals and do not deserve treatment

as men. The hoarding of wealth by the State simply depersonalizes

(or mechanizes) the Beast and aggravates a bad situation.

Let us now reconsider the question of territorial defence. Early

memories of a particular place are the roots on which an exploring

child builds his intellect. Home resides in a deep level of the brain.

It is not a house, but an area of sanctified ground or path, a

migration separated from profane places by a barrier of mind. A

child who cannot remember his roots, or Centre, will grow up rootless

and detached. For roots are the basis of a stable intellect. What

is more, they should remain unchanged. A man is able to renew

his identity at his original 'home' when instability threatens his

mental balance. (The work of Proust is a journey back to the Centre

and pilgrimage to a sacred place fills the same emotional gap.) This

mental possession of a place does not necessarily entail physical

possession. If the roots remain unchanged there is no call for

their defence, for there is nothing to defend. But when outsiders

come and hack up his roots, when external pressures expel him from

his Paradise, or if he has lost the memory of it, this displacement

prunes the life of the mind. To be uprooted or deranged is to feel

within the brain the lopping of an axe. When men defend their homes

they defend their mental stability.