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Usufruct is as American as the Declaration of Independence, implicit in the Preamble “to ourselves and our Posterity”. It is explicitly discussed in a famous letter of 6 September
1789 from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, discussing the proposed Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution: “The question whether one generation of men has a right to bind another. . . is a question of such consequences as not only to merit decision, but place also among the fundamental principles of every government. . . . I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, ‘that the Earth belongs in usufruct to the living’ . . .”
Jefferson’s philosophy regarding generational relations was based on this “self-evident” principle. That we have an obligation to preserve Creation for today’s and future generations is a widely held belief. Native American Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper in the Onondaga Nation, discusses the belief of Native Americans in their obligations to the “seventh generation”. It is also a biblical paradigm that the Earth, Creation, is an intergenerational commons, the fruits and benefits of which should be accessible to every member of every generation.
Is the principle that the Earth belongs to us only in usufruct indeed self-evident and accepted by the public? In “Gorilla” I note the observation of Larry King that “nobody cares about 50 years from now.” We can’t take both positions. We need to make up our mind. Do we care?