How Natural Rights Promote Peace

In natural law, he who works the land owns it. The Indians who hunt and gather over a territory own it. In Peru, we have the most current example of a denial of natural law, inasmuch the government has granted foreign entities access to the property of the Indians for drilling and mining. Since the Indians have objected, they are being killed.

If governments recognized natural law, the big businesses would have to approach the Indians and make them an offer that made it worth their while to change their lives. the Indian would probably refuse. If small businesses from say USA approached the Indians, what with smaller resources and scaled operations, perhaps they Indians would agree. Things would change slowly, but those who own the property would be in charge of their property and their lives.

In his book THE ECONOMICS AND POLITICS OF RACE Thomas Sowell argues black Americans who came from British colonies have done rather well, but those who came from French colonies have done poorly. The difference is the British share power and the French do not (I have tested this theory with many people and they tend to agree with the assessment.)

I observe that although former French and British colonies still have trade if not affection for France and Britain, we do not see this for Spain among former Spanish colonies. Perhaps the Spanish were the harshest of the colonial powers, or some other reason. I do note the Catholic Church certainly spent a lot of energy criticizing Spanish imperial policies, especially slavery. Perhaps this is why although there is no residual affection for Spain in former Spanish colonies, there Catholic churches certainly still thrive.

It would probably be a good long term move for the Church to criticize USA imperial policies.

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