Thoughts on the loss of privacy and sustenance

when our new neighbor decided to utilize the small narrow strip of land between our backyard and the edge of the top of our hill...I was shocked. After all that piece of land had never been "developed" in over 50 years. Plus the use of that land essentially removed any privacy we had enjoyed on our backyard for twenty years. From our backyard we had a view looking out across a valley bordered across the way by Forest Lawn Cemetery--tree top silhouettes that changed gradation with the seasons.

Our new neighbor assured us that he wouldn't do something that impacted our privacy or our view...of course we didn't own that little strip of land. And, well to put it bluntly, he lied. He put in a vegetable garden right along our fence effectively blocking out the view. And he stands effectively in our backyard daily. We are private people, with private needs. We have always respected our neighbors needs for privacy and continuity assiduously. after all...do unto others...right?

I have thought a great deal about why someone would make this choice when is so clear that they are ruining other peoples reality. I have decided that it is a variant of Cultural Darwinism at it's most fundamental "selfish gene"reductionist state.

While we saw a wild hillside filled with poetry and symbolic continuity...it had lasted for who knows how long untouched...our neighbor saw something that he could take and improve. And, importantly, have exclusively to himself. Well, he owns it, so that is the case. But it is not "neighborly" nor is it "green". Our neighbor talks constantly about being "green" and the beauty of life. He clearly doesn't see us as part of life and therefore we are not "green". We are in the way.

What are we in the way of I wondered? We are in the way of a sociopathic riff on Heidegger's postulate regarding the standing reserve. Potential usefulness. Our neighbor developed the standing reserve because he could not see the potential usefulness of a wild hillside that we, who did not own that hillside and therefore were not, by rights of ownership, allowed to enjoy...and the law backs that up. He's in the right. We just have to deal with someone being there all the time now. Or, we have to put up a solid fence and lose twenty years of experience and joy.

Power. Standing reserves of power. The power to make others lose something for your enjoyment. Land development as another item in civilization's immense calculas of extraction. Extraction of "value" that is horded by the cultural Darwinian selfish gene.

We accept this. It has been had, and I have made many missteps in coming to terms with the inevitability of this change. I acted poorly...coldly...like an asshole. I degraded myself and fell into a trap. A behavioral trap based upon my own version of the selfish gene. I have come to be ashamed of myself for having gone through this year-long process of anger, sadness, loss, and lashing out. I retreat now into the facts: I can only control myself. I can be decent, while at the same time finding fault with the decisions that have been foisted on me. But I will not play the game anymore. I merely must exist as best as I can. Find beauty where I can. Smile...and hope that there a sitting reserve somewhere to counter the need to develop the standing reserve of power.