to think no one should own land and ignore a sign saying private woods

[mls3]

Ok o will probably get flamed here.

But there is a badly managed woods near me with am old broken sign that say private woods. Aibu to collect a few broken branches for the wood burner? I know it is stealing, but this woods is overgrown and I'm thinking how unethical it is for anyone to own land.

Land used to all be free, until someone carved it all up to hoard for themselves. If land was still free now maybe we wouldn't have to all be working such stupid hours wasting our lives doing a job we don't like.

This woods isn't padlocked, fenced or anything.

You don't want to extract minerals. Do you?

So that's a bit of a blind alley.

Before men claimed rights to it?

Don't women get a look in?

Is that a deliberate use of a male term?

Oh i can just imagine how well the public on the whole would treat land which wasn't managed (ie owned)! Of course there'd be no littering. No fires lit. No camping. No dumping. No dog shit.

All land is owned and managed by someone. The public are sometimes allowed to roam on it. It doesn't mean it's somehow 'free'. Think of beaches. You do know some bugger has to go over them and pick up all the crap that wonderful joe public 'enjoying their land' leaves behind them?

Are you in Good King Wenceslas, OP?

"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who then was the Gentleman?"

Nice idea, but really that '1%' of people have 'owned land' (and its crops topsoil or subsoil and it's mineral rights) for thousands of years now so we aint gonna go back to a hunter gatherer society any time soon.

If you decide to nick it, be careful!!!
It isn't yours and the owner could prosecute,
(happily not actually shoot you though in this country at least!)

Well land ownership laws are as they are.

So if you want to take the wood, size up the risk involve, and proceed or not accordingly.

It really is not going to end with you giving impassioned speeches in the High Court either way.

Op, do you have a garden? If so do you think you own it?

" I'm thinking how unethical it is for anyone to own land."

Is your home suspended from the sky, OP?

I've no big concern about you taking a few broken branches. If they were mine I'd say help yourself - though if I were you I'd ask first.

If you go ahead without asking, well, it's hardly the crime of the century, but don't complain if you get a bollocking, a gamekeeper's bullet in your arse or the landowner's Labrador hanging off it!

I don't think land has ever been free. At least not for thousands of years.

Didn't it used to be owned by the Kings whi could give it out (and take it back) at will, and before that the tribal chiefs. I think it has been a very very long time since land was free.

I don't think its a good idea, or justified, to steal..

Yep, totally unethical. I think it's unethical to own animals as well, I'll just go and help myself to a pig from the local farm, shall I?

I'm betting OP isn't a homeowner.

And what on earth do you mean by "badly managed wood"?

Are you experienced in forestry? Or is that just townie for "looks untidy"?

This has to be the best thread I've read for a while to justify stealing something.

I don't like large corporations running a monopoly and keeping prices high so I plan on getting myself down to Tesco at lunch and stealing some chickens, and I want everyone on here to agree that that's ok. Ok?

:S

If that is justification, can I come to your house and help myself to stuff from your property on the basis it is unethical for you to own that land?

But, I do think that gathering fallen wood would probably fall under foraging. Which is permitted so long as it is only for personal use.

And what on earth do you mean by "badly managed wood"?

Are you experienced in forestry? Or is that just townie for "looks untidy"?

Hang on - OP says ''badly managed'' woods.So he/she accepts that there must be some management of land. Who the heck's going to do the managing if it's all 'free'?

Actually im waiting for the drip feed now where we find out OP is living on 20p a week to feed and clothe her 6 children and we are all a nest of vipers for being mean in a wood stealing thread as those twigs were going to heat the house for a month.

People like you stole sweetcorn and fruit from my grandparent's garden... just parked the car and jumped the wall and took them... oh but that was just some furrin country...

Time for a bad joke I think

Why did Proudhon only use cheap teabags?
.
.
Because proper tea is theft!

I also own a wood (live in the US). It is private because I don't want my children to meet hunters/strangers when they are playing there with their friends and the dogs. Occasionally, people knock on my door and ask if they can take some firewood, and I usually say yes as there is so much lying around that we can't haul and chop ourselves. If you go into the wood without asking, you might encounter more than you bargain for! Mine has huge holes, random wild boars, deer and other creatures and a old slave graveyard I don't ask too much about. I pay taxes and insurance on this land, so it costs me money. Why not ask the owner?

Even proper anarchists said anarchy would never work for everyone in society as a hierarchical structure would be rebuilt naturally.

It's unethical for you to take branches which provide shelter to small woodland animals, bugs etc and provide sustenance for others.
If we all helped ourselves to a few branches the wildlife would suffer very quickly.

I agree with you. It seems ridiculous that you can pay some money and own a bit of the earth. Who bought it from whom? Its ground. Its just there. Its not something that someone crafted. Its fucked up

However the law wont see it that way, but if the land is neglected, I dont see that anyone is going to be that bothered if you take some sticks