In a way, yes. Beauty is an aspect of a home many people value, just like beautification projects in public parks are partly for the ornamental value -- the appearance -- to make the place more beautiful.Red Celt wrote:So the lawn is what? An ornament?Coito ergo sum wrote:Walking on it. Setting foot on it.Red Celt wrote: That aside, the lawn outside of the property that you inhabit... can you exclude your neighbours? Exclude them from doing what?
In my current yard, I take pride in making it look nice. I don't want dogs crapping in it, or people trodding across it, because of aesthetics. Strange people picnicking in my yard would also be unnerving to She, who likes to feel secure in her home, and strangers using the yard as a public park can be unsettling to some people.
Grass is not "meant" to do anything. Well, unless we're now theists ascribing an intention to the universe.Red Celt wrote: A green square of inch-high blades of grass, inhibited from doing what grass is meant to do (grow, seed and reproduce) so that... what?
Grass is growing fine when it is husbanded by a human. It's no different than cultivating flowers, hedgerows and such. It can be very beautiful.
Well, in the real world, i may inhabit it, and those who I allow onto it may inhabit it.Red Celt wrote: It is a sculpted nothingness that nobody may inhabit?
I'm still not clear how it's handled in your imagined world. You seem to suggest that people could just go there if they wanted to, tamp the grass down, and such, kick up divets and all, just because you happen to not think that is "damaging" to the lawn.
No. I don't want a sign. If you want a sign, then you put it up.Red Celt wrote: Put a sign up saying "this is a work of art" so that your neighbours can gather and view it, offering their own interpretation of the artist's meaning.
What's so confusing about wanting to maintain a nice, beautiful, safe and private space within which I and my family can reside, with the right not to have it interfered with by others who have no stake in its care or maintenance?Red Celt wrote:
I'm confused by what you're trying to accomplish (other than "This belongs to me! I own it! It is mine!").
To have a place to sleep, eat, relax, and enjoy life, as well as raise my family, without being subject to the interference of others, for one thing.Red Celt wrote:
It's a bit of land. It was a bit of land before you were born and it will still be a bit of land after you're dead. Just... what's the point of claiming it as yours, in the mean time?
In your imagined world, what would not be a communal area? And, if there are any areas that are not communal, why the distinction?Red Celt wrote:
If it's a communal area (belonging to nobody) why does it matter what other people do on it?
For example, the garage in the house in which I live communal? Can anyone park there when I'm not around, and use the tools and equipment I have stored in there? If not, why not?
One aspect of obtaining a property in something is added value. That's part of the concept of property rights. If I build a boat, and I row that boat out into the lake, and I sit there all afternoon and catch a fish, and then I row the boat back and I light a fire, and I start cooking that fish, is that fish mine? In a property concept, the idea is that the fish is mine because I caught it and did the work to get it. Someone who didn't do that can't come along later and say that the fish is just as much his. It's natural for humans to gain that expectation -- it is as natural as "I worked to farm this land, and I gathered the seeds and I plowed the rows, and I planted, and the seed grew, and I harvested, so the corn is mine."
Same with the grass. You may not think a nice garden of grass is important for aesthetic purposes, but I do.
