This Land Is Our Land: The Fight to Reclaim the Commons

Author David Bollier narrates this look at “the commons,” which he defines as “the things we collectively own,” citing examples such as air, water, national parks, and the Internet. Bollier starts with an instructive history related to the subject, ranging from President Franklin Roosevelt's creation of Social Security to the public funding that helped Jonas Salk find a cure for polio (Salk wasn't looking for fame or profit and felt that “the people” owned the patent for his vaccine). Bollier notes that conservative thinkers tend to misrepresent common ownership as a form of socialism that will eliminate private property and endanger individual liberty—hence the rise of privatization, deregulation, and a litigious society where deep-pocketed institutions go after consumers for the smallest infractions, like the use of a song in a YouTube video. As a result of legislation enacted in the 1980s and '90s, major corporations can drill for oil on public lands and can clear-cut forests without having to share the profits, while the bottled-water industry makes billions of dollars each year by repackaging a public resource. Directed by Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally, This Land Is Our Land's one-speaker format (interspersed with vintage and contemporary clips and stills) can be somewhat monotonous, but the subject is important and relevant for its insightful look at the intersection of ecology, economics, and law. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Fennessy)