The problem of housing is one of the gravest problems of modern life. There is a lot of accumulated wrongdoing in the social organisms that our philosophers and politicians try to remedy.
The problem of housing should not really exist because enough living space exists in nature. Nature is extremely lavish with all of her creatures and if they do not even solve the housing problem there must inevitably have been a transgression of the laws of nature, either individually or by the organization to which the people belong.
If we want to solve the problem of the housing we need to harmonize the laws of the human world with the laws of nature. There exists no other way to solve the problem of housing.
The mass is an extension of the individual and if we want to solve the collective problem of housing it is urgent for each individual to become completely conscious of his own problem. It is lamentable, the state of unconciousness in which the individual lives. Really the individual has a Sleeping Consciousness. This is the only way to explain why the problem of housing exists in the world. If the individual had the Awakened Consciousness, the masses would have the Awakened Consciousness, and the problem of housing, it is logical that it would not exist.
Only individuals with Sleeping Consciousness can live with their women and children in apartments of buildings of thirty, or forty or more floors.
It is extremely painful to see so many children shut-in like rats inside the buildings of the big cities . Those children do not have the happiness of playing in the bosom of nature. Those children do not have the happiness of running in the sublime forests of Mother Nature. Their lives have been condemned to this misfortune by the unconscious parents who brought them into the world.
The hour has arrived to reflect a little. Each individual should Awaken the Consciousness. It is urgent to solve the problem of housing. It is necessary for the individual to become conscious of this problem, when there are groups completely conscious of the problem of housing, then we can act collectively to resolve this problem. It is necessary to make the rulers of the earth, the powerful, comprehend the necessity to resolve the problem of housing.
We propose two things to solve the problem of housing, first: to place housing under municipal ownership. Second: Decongestion of the urban life.
The price of housing can become cheaper by means of the first proposition. With the second proposition, urban life is decongested, making it more feasible to improve the economic and social situation of the people.
Placing housing under municipal ownership would give the state funds to enlarge the living space of the urban life. It would be perfectly possible to establish in the periphery of the cities the marvellous system of house-farms.
This system proves to be immensely productive for the society because the farm is a productive source of essential goods, such as eggs, milk, vegetables, fruits, etc., etc., etc.
Some Governments of Latin America have already initiated this system with wonderful results. The idea is in the air, what’s important is to expand it. It is necessary to decongest the urban life, to initiate an exodus toward the periphery of the cities. It is not necessary to confiscate anyone’s property.
No coups d’état or shootings are needed, it is not necessary to take away anyone’s property . The governments of the lands can negotiate with the owners of houses and buildings, buy, exchange, exchange houses for lots or for house-farm style houses built on the outskirts of cities. The
negotiation of houses should be made obligatory for the good of the people. The individuals should be compelled to negotiate with the state in order to solve the masses’ collective problem.
The state should invest part of it’s funds for the construction of house-farms.
It is very just that all the workers of all trades should have the happiness of living in their own house, we have seen with pain a lot of workers living in huts of sticks and cans, or in filthy caves, or in cardboard shacks like real pigs. The result of such poverty is always the coup d’état, the bloody dictatorship, the conspiracies of the discontent, the revolts of blood and liquor.
Planet Earth has enough living space to resolve the problem of housing. What is needed is comprehension. Every group of men who comprehend can work in partnership with the governments of the earth to solve the problem of housing.
The powerful ones of the earth build, with the intention of exploiting their neighbors, stately mansions for the rich to live in, and construct buildings of 80 and 100 floors for the workers of muscle and brain to live in, but they forget the unfortunate. The cities are full of mothers who, with their children, wander from street to street seeking shelter, poor children who have nowhere to spend the night, elderly people who die of cold, etc. There really is no compassion for the unfortunate, it is necessary to intelligently change all of this order of things, and to start a new age within the august thunder of thought.
It is completely absurd to live on top of each-other like monkeys or apes, in buildings of 80 and 90 floors – that is not civilization, that is lack of intelligence – honest families living like rats between drawers or in sunless lifeless apartments with stale air, old men and children, women and men, all perched on top of each-other, floor upon floor, room upon room, it is completely absurd and stupid.
The world has enough living space for all, the system of house-farms and the decongestion of the urban life will resolve the problem of housing.
In the peripheries of many cities the house-farm system already exists, but unfortunately only for the bureaucracy. It is necessary to enlarge this system, make it for everybody. It is urgent to make houses farms for all the citizens, rich and poor, beggars and unskilled laborers, etc., etc., etc., We are all brothers and sisters and we have the same rights.
Only by recognizing the rights of all beings can we finish with political violence forever, and with the bloody revolutions of the extreme right or extreme left. Benito Juárez, national hero of the Americas, said with just reason: “Between individuals as between nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.”
It isn’t fair that the citizens don’t have their own houses, it is necessary to resolve the problem of housing as soon as possible. Living in common in buildings, or inside apartment houses, or with many families together, is very dangerous for public health because diseases are easily contagious.
The stale air charged with carbonic acid damages the citizens’ health; The children turn out sickly and weak, the mothers under subjection transplant the stale air they breathe into the creatures they carry in their bellies; this is fatal for the new generations. It isn’t fair that the citizens don’t have their own houses, it is necessary to resolve the problem of housing as soon as possible.
The stale air charged with carbonic acid damages the citizens’ health; The children turn out sickly and weak, the mothers under subjection transplant the stale air they breathe into the creatures they carry in their bellies; this is fatal for the new generations.
Really our so vaunted modern civilization is barbarism of the worst kind, it is urgent to understand the need to solve the social problem, it is essential to harmonize with the laws of nature.
There should be living space between houses, there should be gardens, trees and flowers between house and house, we should safeguard the public health
It is urgent to initiate a public exodus on a grand scale, from the centre towards the peripheries. Only that way we can achieve the solution of the problem of housing.
The governments, understanding the need to decongest the urban life and to solve the problem of housing, should change their offices and governmental buildings, building them again in the peripheries of the cities. In that way is promoted a rapid decongestion of the metropolis. It is necessary to fight intensely for a new order of things, to realize the Social Christ on the face of the earth.
Samael Aun Weor
