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Fires where a catalytic invention in human evolution. Not only did they allow us the physiological benefits or cooked food, but hey also brought us together in a shared reliance on common resources, laying the foundation for cooperative social structures. Whenever I sit before a fire, I imagine what our earliest ancestors must have felt as the heat drew them close, providing refuge from the threats of the night in those times before man was the conqueror of all he saw.
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I found myself wondering: what does it say about our world that the most basic of human comforts -- a park, a fire, a place to sit, a view of the lake -- are assumed by default to be inaccessible to the average person, or accessible only under the constraints of a special permit or designation? To be, in a word, private?
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The schema of capitalism -- where the pursuit of private profits is sanctified -- has turned Americans shamefacedly away from the public life that is the birthright of all citizens in a democracy.
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(In Defense of the Public, pp.30-1, In These Times - Dec. 2010)
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