Buy the sky and sell the sky.

2020 — in progress

In a songs by the American rock band R. E. M., i was intrigued by the phrase “Buy the sky and sell the sky” because it combines words that are not normally used together in ordinary speech. How can it be that the sky can be sold or bought? In my opinion, you can only sell what you have created yourself, with your own mind or work.

I decided to do a little research in the information space about the “methods” of selling abstract things that can not be picked up, such as time and the sky. These are not things in the usual sense, but they directly affect the life of man and all life on Earth.

The phrase that attracted me was a reference to the famous speech of an Chief Seattle Indian in response to the offer of the US government to buy their land in exchange for placing Indians on a reservation. This speech is not confirmed in writing, but, according to the leader’s contemporaries, “it is far from implausible”. 

In my opinion, this phrase has become prophetic: the practice of appropriating nature, biopolitics, and global capitalism — this is the reality we live in.