I was not brought up with any religious teaching …  But there came a time in my life, when I went in search of something to satisfy a deep inner hunger and I turned to the organised Christian Church.   

 

I was married to a Latvian immigrant, who told me of the Latvian’s experience of Communism prior to WWII.   

“Such evil” I thought…   and over time the question formed in my mind – “if this is Communism – what’s the Christian answer? ”  

 

Again, I went searching…  and this time the Australian League of Rights came to my notice -  I was anti-communist and so were they….   

And so the direction of my life – and my family’s - was changed and the course was set….

 

 

WHY  “SOCIAL CREDIT”?  

 

What does the term mean?  The answer didn’t come easily.  I searched leading social crediter’s answers to that question:  and still wasn’t satisfied.  Here are some examples.

 

Bryan Monahan a medical doctor said: “There are various answers to that question, but no short answer.  Social Credit is a way of looking at things… a point of view that seems to bring every branch of knowledge into a new and more clear perspective.   Equally, all knowledge is relevant to Social Credit.”

 

Geoffrey Dobbs, a biologist said:  “Social Credit is the name given to a certain movement of the human mind and spirit –  it challenges compulsion. It is the name of something that exists in all societies but didn’t have a name for it  …  and people only become aware of it when they are losing it.” 

 

Scientist Tudor Jones said: “Social Credit is The power of human beings in association to produce the result intended measured in terms of their satisfaction.”

 

Eric Butler a keen student of history and politics said:  “Social Credit is the policy of a philosophy… and that philosophy is Christian”  

 

And then there was John Fitzgerald: John was an engineer who first tutored me in An  Introduction to Social Credit.  A devout Catholic John wrote on my notes: “Social Credit is the absolute and fundamental predisposing condition to all true order.” He reminded me:   ‘Philosophy’ is said to be “a concept of reality” OR…    if you want the academic definition:  “Love of wisdom”… i.e., the knowledge of things in their ultimate causes”…   

 

“Oh dear” thought I….  and continued my search for a  definition that I could grasp and examine. 

 

It was a 1936 article by a Rev. Robertson – a Church of Scotland minister “Fundamentals of Social Credit in the Teaching of Jesus”, that helped me to lay hold of this elusive thing named Social Credit  …. He used the words of Jesus Christ to make his point:  

"WOE unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  You tithe mint and anise and cummin, but have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy, and social credit:   these you ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.  You blind guides, which strain out the gnat and swallow the camel."

 

He explained the Greek word he translated as "social credit," is, …  “ generally rendered "faith" in the New Testament.   

 

“In this saying,” he said, “it is used in another ordinary meaning it had in the Greek, and that is: "faithful dealing" between man and man.”

 

 And went on to St. Paul's letter to the Galatians where it is used in the same sense:  "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, . . . faithfulness" (R.V.).  

 

At last I began to get a handle on the term….   It is faithful dealing between man and man –there are benefits to be had, there are pleasant fruits resulting from such faithful dealing between man and man.

 

But Rev. Robertson cautioned his readers not to confuse the Greek concept of  “social credit” with the modern technical sense of the term, but to be aware …   “it is certain that the fundamental idea is the same”.   

 

Jesus is saying to the leaders of his day that man's trust in the reliability of his neighbour should be the outcome of true piety, and, as such, should be the concern of all.

 

The founder of the Social Credit movement, Clifford Hugh Douglas, looking around the world in his day saw its sorry state as presenting a gloomy picture ---  but it was his reason WHY it was so gloomy that is important.

 

He insisted “IT IS the direct result of endeavouring to carry on the business of the world in accordance with a defective conception or idea”.

 

 He wrote:  “It is my own belief, and I might say that it is almost my only religion, that there is running through the nature of the Universe something that we may call a "canon." 

 

It is the thing which is referred to in the Gospel of  John as the "Logos," the "Word" (Logos: "The Word" or "Reason"). St. John 1:1, 

 

The Canon has an infinite variety of names. The engineer and the artist refer to it when they say that they have got something "right."   Other people mean the same thing when they talk about absolute Truth, or Reality. 

 

By whatever name we refer to the Canon, instinctively we recognise its existence,  whether getting the right proportions in architecture, or in the grim lines of a battleship.  

 

And no matter what sphere of activities we are engaged in - genuine success only accompanies a consistent attempt to discover and to conform to this canon.

 

For instance, I have no doubt whatever that there is one single test which can be applied to any financial scheme which is put to you for your consideration, and that is, whether it represents Reality,….  And he insisted:  the  present financial system most certainly misrepresents and distortsReality.

 

DOUGLAS and COST ACCOUNTING 

 

Most League folk know of the discovery Douglas made during WW I –  The Farnborough Aircraft Factory had gotten into a muddle with its accounting system. 

 

His task was to sort out the accounting problems.    His use of the new tabulating machines speeded up his investigation--  and it was here that he made his seminal discovery that later became known as the "A+B Theorem". Put simply: The factory was generating costs (A) at a faster rate than it was distributing money – or purchasing power - in the form of wages and salaries (B)!  

 

The question to Douglas was: "Is this a peculiarity of a factory producing weapons in time of war, or is it true of every business?" He investigated further (remember he was a cost accountant) and found that in every case the total costs always exceeded the sums paid out in wages, salaries and dividends.  And the automated, computerized processes continue to increase the RATIO of OVERHEADS to CURRENT WAGES…  accounted for in FINANICAL TERMS.   

Douglas could see that Financial Accounting did not accurately record the reality of the Physical Accounting of the Factory Production.

 

Let me give you a simple example to illustrate the problem that faced the industrialised nations -  whether they recognised it or not.

I saw this while watching the BBC version of Eizabeth Gaskell’s 1850s novel “North and South”.  The wife of a clergyman she wrote about the many social problems resulting from the Industrial Revolution. I could plainly see just how the problem arose and that which Douglas had discovered nearly a hundred years previous and that the problem has never been resolved. 

 

The story goes something like this:

 

The Master, John Thornton, manufacturer of cotton, visits London's Great Exhibition of 1851, and was enthralled to see the products, the new inventions, and the machines brought together under the one roof, from all over the Empire. 

 

The scriptwriter has him saying: "Technologically, we are the envy of the world - if only there was a MECHANISM to let us all live together, to take advantage of the great benefits that come from industry." 

 

A balanced, whole, self-sufficient economic policy of a nation would include the trinity of production, distribution and CONSUMPTION.  

 

Two other main characters in the story were

1.  Nicholas Higgins “the Committee Member’ who represented the poorly paid mill hands.  They hadn’t received a wage rise in five years -  and even then their wages had been reduced  -- and yet food prices, living costs, etc., continued to rise.

 

2.   The Dissenter, a former minister of religion (whom, to me, represents the disaffected of the organised Church) was a friend to both Higgins and Thornton.  Both shared with him their problems ---  from their own disadvantaged position.

 

The Dissenter sadly acknowledged he could see both had valid points of concern, but could only appeal to them to reason together; to try to see the other's point of view.  And, to seek the answers in the guiding principle:  'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".  

 

John Thornton, the Master, said that he was bound by the 'rules of good business sense’.  He had to stick to those rules or go out of business.  The rules of good business included:

• day-to-day running of the mill, wages, mortgages, wear and tear and upkeep of machines, energy costs, raw material costs,… ask any cost accountant if this is not so
• And finally, he must obtain from the buying public, a price that would cover all financial costs, and, hopefully, a profit margin

 

To the very end of the story, Thornton wished for the opportunity of cultivating MUTUAL DEALINGS with his workers - beyond the matter of wages.  But neither Master nor Worker could see beyond the concerns and antagonisms between them…  which Thornton thought had its origins in the inherent weakness within human nature.  

 

PICTURE IN YOUR MIND THE SCENE IN THE COTTON MILL

• Thornton is overseeing the workers and attending to the running of the mill the weaving looms are running at ‘full throttle’.  

• The output of production, in comparison to the output from human energy, is enormous. 
• The workers are not weaving the cotton, the machines are weaving the cotton, the workers are operating the machines – 
• and the productive output now depends on the power, the energy, running the machines.  

 

The greater the power generated - the greater the productive output.   Of course you might say… that’s obvious.

 

But aren’t we now looking at a physical reality?  Hasn’t this picture got more to do with the physical accounting of a “time/energy/unit-ratio rather than a ‘cash nexus’ and/or a problem inherent within human nature?  

 

The Dissenter didn’t have an answer, but appealed to the Christian principle of : 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".   

 It is not that long ago the Archbishop of Canterbury made a similar appeal to his flock:  NOT to build their lives on selfishness.  Both were/are appealing for the replacement of present day values, with the Christian Ethic and the Golden Rule. 

 

The Manufacturer didn’t have an answer but could see "Technologically, we are the envy of the world” and thought  - “if only there was a MECHANISM to let us all live together, to take advantage of the great benefits that come from industry." But he also thought there needed to be “a change of heart” …  which wasn’t going to happen in his lifetime.  

 

As for the Union Man, his response to the appeal for Christian ethics to apply was: “I don’t say I don’t believe in your God, but I don’t believe that He meant us (i.e., the workers) to live a dog’s life.”

 This discussion reminded me of a response by Douglas to a 1946 speech by an Earl in the House of Lords: Douglas went to crux of the matter:  

 “It is one thing to make the appeal…  but there is the little recognised, but huge problem that need to be RESOLVED.  

It is the Policy of the Philosophy which is important… it is THE EVIDENCE of things not seen. 

He continued:   “This country is not now the Policy of a Christian Philosophy, and, before it can again, as an organisation, put into practice those Christian principles, for which the Earl appealed, it must understand their application through proper MECHANISMS. 

 

“With some hesitation”, he wrote, “I suggest that the question arising out of the Christian Church, is not the same, either in nature or degree, as that involved in the acceptance of what is nowadays vaguely called Christianity… It is the Doctrine of the Incarnation. 

 

WHAT we have to make up our minds upon, is whether human political action is subject to the same kind, or some kind, of compulsion to be "right" - as we accept in doing a multiplication sum, and if so, whether the Christian Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, is, today, the living incarnation of that

"right "-ness. Failing that, the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of Light.”

 

Douglas, being an engineer, used the example of the law of thermo-dynamics to illustrate his point. The law may be known, and quoted ad infinitum, but until it is put into practise – through MECHANISMS  such as aeroplanes… it is just words. IT IS THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION that is important... it is the Incarnation of the belief.

 

But aren’t we now looking at a physical reality?  Hasn’t this picture got more to do with the physical accounting of a “time/energy/unit-ratio rather than a ‘cash nexus’ and/or a problem inherent within human nature?  

 

PHYSICAL REALITY I thought…  that took me back to the Law of the Tithe in the Old Testament.  The Law of the Tithe was based on payment IN KIND.  If you were a farmer you paid your Tithe in grain --- if a pastoralist you paid in animals.  It is an interesting exercise….  Look up just what the shepherds ‘crook’ was used for as well as keeping the sheep under control.

 

David Astle in “The Babylonian Woe” wrote of The Law of the Tithe: “As written on the scribe’s tablet, the foundations of the power from on High, were given to the Kings and Priests of those times, and their authority rested on the laws of the Distribution of Surpluses.  

 

The Laws of the Tithe were directed towards the peoples for the maintenance of right living and tranquil procession through life. As smaller communities developed into city/states it was agreed that the producers of the real wealth would pay one tenth of their production IN KIND for the upkeep of the Temple and those who served the community in their functions as King and Priest. Physically, it meant that the producers either consumed a little less or produced a little more for the payment of the Tithe. In a good year all lived well and in a bad year all had to tighten their belts.  There were no debts left over for the following year… farmers could not use next year’s rain for this year’s crops…  and there were no financial debts … Nature knows nothing of financial debt. 

 

David Astle wrote that he made a study of “the Origin of certain Banking Practices and of their effect on the events of Ancient History,  written in the light of the Present Day.” He opened his book with a  passage from Ecclesiasticus (8 verse 2): “For money has been the ruin of many and has misled the minds of Kings.” Astle follows the thread of certain Banking Practices back to around 3000 BC.

 

At times when reading what Astle discovered from his studies, I am left with such an overwhelming sadness.  It comes from the knowledge that all through recorded history this power has been behind the scenes working its evil, gnawing away at the roots of the Tree of Life…  People count for nothing – power is what matters.  

 

Policies based on the Christian faith would give rise to a SOCIAL STRUCTURE in which there is the greatest possible decentralisation of POWER IN THE FIELDS OF POLITICS AND ECONOMCS  …  so that the individual can make free decisions. As an example:  Social Credit advocates the changing of the present financial system in order that the Individual, in faithful dealings, in association with his fellows, can make the greatest progress towards self-development. But how is this lack of purchasing power going to be resolved in this modern age?   Having progressed from men attending the machines we have entered the world of technology and automation.  AUTOMATION means the tending of machines by other machines.  Not a human in sight!   

 

What the three characters in the Gaskell novel did not recognise: All three were, and are, directly and indirectly governed by FINANCIAL considerations. Technologically, the western world was “the envy of the world” but what about “in this MONEY ECONOMY”?   How do we resolve the lack of purchasing power?

 

Yes, labour is still based on wages and salaries, but the products are more than ever pooled and marketed -  and distributed through MONEY. 

 

Anthony Cooney, former teacher, distributist and social crediter, in his booklet on Douglas wrote of Douglas’ discovery: “Here then in the A+B Theorem, is the MATHEMATICAL IDENTIFICATION overlooked by both the Marxists and the Classical economists.  

 

IN the 1930s there were those who well understood what Douglas’ discovery meant.  And they had no intention of giving up their power, their control over the people. An American group known as  Technocracy put out some very interesting data which Douglas  studied. 

 

He said: The data put forward is interesting, useful, and, in the main, correct; but doesn’t  tell engineers and social crediters anything they didn’t already know.  Remember this was happening in the 1930s.

 

• the rate of production per man-hour is a function of the mechanical power which is employed in production, 
• this factor, combined other factors, has now enabled, a small and diminishing portion of the available labour, to produce everything required for a high standard of living, not only for the actual workers, but for the increasingly unemployed. 

 

Over and above this, the technocrats pointed out, 

• this immensely accelerated production has not been bought by the general population, but has resulted, on the contrary, in a piling up of debt in the United States alone of approximately 218 billion dollars and that money debt, represents unpaid for, production. 

 

While Douglas was most interested in the DATA provided by the group, he thought people should be cautious about accepting the form of ORGANISATION proposed…As distinct from the facts,” said Douglas, “the POLICY didn’t differ in essence from the policy associated with Fascism, Soviet Russia, or Rationalism -  which at the time was the Bank of England's particular brand of industrial reorganisation in Great Britain.

 

Just AS AN ASIDE:
If you follow the thread of this Technocracy Movement up to this day you will discover the thread carries through the years to the Global Warming issue, Climate Change, Carbon Tax, Carbon Trading and Carbon Currency.  MORE ON THIS LATER.

 

NATIONAL DIVIDEND

Douglas first tackled the lack of purchasing power in a 1918 article, “The Delusion of Super Production”.  His RESOLUTION for this lack of FINANCIAL purchasing power was the proposal of a National Dividend for everybody irrespective of work.  LIFE WAS MORE THAN FOOD AND THE BODY MORE THAN RAIMENT (clothes). 

PHYSICALLY modern nations could produce more than enough for their people.  What prevented the DISTRIBUTION was the FINANCIAL SYSTEM… the money system.  

 

His proposals were savagely attacked by the Fabians of the day. Better to have Marx’s socialist policies, of which the Soviet regime was a good example at the time, “the evidence of things hoped for,”  than Douglas’ National Dividend for all.  Fabians such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb, said they would never approve of, never stand for, such a proposal.  They would never agree to give every citizen his birth right of an annual share of what was now the COMMUNAL PRODUCTION.  Production no longer based on human and animal energy but on much more powerful NATURAL forces. 

 

These people identified with the workers – but they were not OF them. They used the working people as an instrument for gaining power.  They were not REALLY interested in resolving the conflict between the Masters and the Unions. They wanted monopoly over Labour.  For them… Better REVOLUTION  than RESOLUTION.

 

When social crediters speak or write of the “Science” of Social Credit they mean “an orderly approach to truth” rather than the ‘science’ of modern Finance/Economics or the  ‘chemical science’ of companies such as Monsanto.  And, while social credit Science applies to the Governmental and Economic systems the PHILOSOPHY is rooted in the Christian Revelation.  

 

AND what of THE POWER OF HUMAN BEINGS – IN ASSOCIATION 

 

Social Credit is (that is –creedo),  is the belief, that, in faithful dealings between men) there is an increment of association, there is a belief  - that human beings, in association, can produce the result intended measured in terms of their satisfaction.

 

ASSOCIATIONS…  

Social crediters seek to learn something about ASSOCIATIONS, because human society is AN ASSOCIATION... the most complex association we know: a vast construct, or complex, of separate associations.  And this is what was  found

 

Every association has a RESULT. This is its INCREMENT OF ASSOCIATION.

 

(1)  Each of the ELEMENTS in an association, is effective, in its own way.

(2)  Knowledge of the RESULT of an association is, and can be derived PRACTICALLY, by observing the CIRCUMSTANCES, IN WHICH IT OCCURS.

 

Both of these generalisations are of supreme importance to anyone who wishes, let us say, to control the Social Credit. They are well

understood by those who wish to diminish it.  

 

Many people in the community seem to associate matter more prominently with that particular form of it, which we call mud, than with any other. These same people sometimes show a strong inclination to disregard the fact that wealth, which they are willing to interpret in the broadest terms, usually has a lowly origin.

 

• The greatest poetry is usually printed on ordinary paper with ordinary ink and cannot become wealth except through the medium of the printed book. 
• The greatest music cannot become wealth except through the medium of a large variety of material instruments made of steel, brass, silver, copper, wood, gut, horse-hair, ivory, etc. 
• Stone, linen, oils, paints and varnishes are items in the medium for conveying wealth through the visual sense, and spiritual wealth is usually associated with special buildings, murals and other decorations, and other things of a material kind.

 

The peculiar associations between the seed and the soil, the growing plant and sunlight have resulted in a redistribution of energy. 

Man makes arrangements for this natural event to occur at times and places advantageous to himself. 

 

The capacity for work is increased by providing the conditions in which energy may be released from stores, and, by the use of mechanical associations inherent in the properties of motion, this capacity is directed into useful channels.

 

It is the knowledge of How to do things…. “Know-how” as the Americans say.  This knowledge embodies a conservative force, which results in their continuing to be done, as it is known they can be done, and the result is a constantly accelerating power to do things. 

 

There is no other ingredient in wealth-production.  I have not mentioned money, which superstition places among the items of wealth. It is not wealth --- it is never consumed.  

 

Anyone who wishes to increase the Social Credit  had better be as well-informed as those who want to diminish it, and it is impossible to be

well-informed about matters of this kind without considering them carefully by easy stages.

 

THE ASSOCIATION TERMED ‘A NATION’ – CAN BE BROADLY… DIVIDED INTO THREE 

 

There is:  The Political/Legislative  -  the Economic/Financial, and the Cultural/Spiritual. 

 

And each element of association is effective in its own way.

 

1. Political/Legislative
Political/Legislative division, the rights of the individual members of the nation, and their relationship to one another, is considered.  That is, their relations with each other, and the relations of the group with other groups. Within this function is included what is broadly termed “the maintenance of law and order".  Eric Butler was fond of using the road rules as an example of the rights of the individual protected by the rule of law.  

 

Under the road rules, he could travel where and when he wanted.  He was free to choose  - as long as he respected the rights of all other road users.  Why, the governor-general could travel safely in his Bentley where and when he wanted, just as I could travel in my aged Holden car, where and when I wanted. 

 

2. ECONOMICS/FINANCE

Economics is where we associate to provide for the material wants of life--food, clothing, shelter and services, such as transport, sanitation, water supplies and roads, etc.

 

Economics is now a communal activity and the present generation lives off the backs of the efforts of those who have gone before.  

When I hear that so-and=so is a ‘self-made man’… I think “What Rubbish”.  He uses the infrastructure and social MECHANISMS built up by previous generations.  He uses the CULTURAL HERITAGE that belongs to the Community as a whole.  

 

Now, in a ‘money’ economy,  people are provided, through the money vote, with an effective voting system.  They can have their choice in economic matters by using their money vote. But the first essential in a free society is that economic activities be directly related to genuine individual requirements. This means APPROPRIATE POLICIES, RIGHT ACTION, THROUGH THE GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM.

 

LIFE IS MORE THAN FOOD AND THE BODY MORE THAN RAIMENT….  That is the POLICY.

 

In ancient times, the foundations of the power from on High, resting on the Laws of the Tithe, that is the PHYSICAL Distribution of Surpluses was for the Common Wealth (the common well-being) of all. 

 

FOR THAT POLICY TO BE INCARNATED…  Political Democracy must first be made a reality for Economic Democracy to function.

 

3. CULTURAL/SPIRITUAL

 

It is in the cultural field that man really strives to develop and fulfill himself.  

In this field his associations are generally most satisfactory because the correct principles of association are observed. There are religious and similar organisations, developed to serve man's spiritual needs.  There are the arts, such as literature and music. And varied sporting activities. 

 

When I began to read Dr. Tudor Jones’ “Elements of Social Credit” I was truly flummoxed.  He asked the student to seriously consider PHYSICAL ‘associations’ by the example of one apple on a plate, followed by the addition of another apple on the plate - and then a child appearing next to the plate, recording what he/she observed. All I could see was an apple on a plate.  When another apple is added to the plate - and a child to the ASSOCIATION – what could I say?

 

For the scientist trained in the powers of observation that would not have been difficult …but I assure you I could see only one and then two apples on a plate and the child who was probably going to be tempted to eat the apples and possibly drop the plate!

 

But the point Tudor Jones wanted to make was this: By watching what happens when similar very simple associations are established,

a vast amount of useful knowledge has been acquired by man - knowledge of HOW TO DO THINGS.    

 

A short name for man's knowledge of how to do things is CULTURE.   As he said:  

The men who did most of this work were wise in that they made haste slowly.  All the great practical achievements are due to their persistence in this course: modern technology, engineering, chemistry, agriculture.  The most wonderful thing about these is THE RESULTS 

 

IN the spiritual/cultural field --  There is "voluntary association" for clearly defined objectives. There is effective control of organisation by individual members. In this field Individuals readily submit to the highest form of discipline, which is self-discipline. 

 

And that is quite true … Thinking of all the years I sought answers to the question:  If this is Communism what is the Christian answer”  I knew the motivation, the will to continue, the struggle to find answers --  came from an impulse within. 

 

THE QUESTION OF POWER  - ONLY TWO BASIC PHILOSOPHIES: Being diametrically opposed, they give rise to conflicting policies. 

 

The first philosophy conceives of all power arising from a point outside, or external to the individual.  It gives rise to policies calling for a certain type of organization. The individual is looked upon as merely an instrument, or tool, of power wielded by someone else.  This is the essence of all forms of totalitarianism.  Eric Butler wrote:  The philosophy of centralised power always produces the same destructive results.  It is a false philosophy because it conflicts with reality, one important aspect of which is the NATURE of individuals

The inevitable result of more and more centralisation of POWER is more and more compulsion.

I remember a conversation with Eric Butler many years ago.  It was clearly evident that the monopolists were gaining more and more control and yet Eric could say:  “They won’t succeed you know.”“Oh Eric!” I exclaimed --- “How can you be so sure?”  He replied:  “Because they go against the Fabric of the Universe”.   

 

Years later I realised he was restating what Douglas said who once challenged the Christian Church thus:   “Either Christianity is in the very warp and woof of the Universe – or it’s just a set of interesting opinions.”     If their faith, that is what they believed, was based on Reality – prove it. 

 

Douglas, I realised at the time, was thinking of Jesus’ words:  Heaven and Earth will pass away – But MY words will never pass away.”  

 

Now why won’t Jesus’ words pass away – but heaven and earth will?   Because His words are in the very warp and woof of the Universe!  Whereas heaven and earth are part of the physical world and subject to the physical laws of Creation. 

 

AND THAT BRINGS US TO THE SECOND PHILOSOPHY:  ONE OF FREEDOM FOR THE INDIVIDUAL:

 

“This philosophy conceives of a social organisation that provides the basis of that rather awful freedom where a man becomes responsible to God for his own development and achievements.     The Kingdom of God is within you. This philosophy conceives of a SOCIAL structure where the individual is able to make free choices, and to accept PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and be ACCOUNTABLE for the choices made….  Only in this way can the individual make real progress, which is moral progress.   This also means organic growth as opposed to rigid and sterile planning. 

 

Because of the importance which this philosophy attaches to the right of the individual to self-development, it stresses that institutions and systems exist to serve the individual. “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath”

 

A SHORT HISTORY OF MONEY

 

The history of ‘Money’ is one long sorry saga of treachery, deceit, betrayal, corruption, fraud, murder.  You name it – you will find it in the history of money.  

 

Early silver and gold smiths issued receipts to their customers for valuables left with them for security.  These receipts began to circulate among the public in place of the gold plate or coins as a more convenient means of conducting their day to day business affairs 

 

Within time, the

silver and gold smiths (the CUSTODIANS OF THE ‘MONEY’) fell into the temptation of issuing more receipts than the gold and silver they had stored for safekeeping.

 

They gambled on the chances of only a certain percentage of the public redeeming their riches with the ‘receipts’, they had issued --- in any one day.   The ratio was around ten per cent.  They would issue nine times more receipts than they had gold plate or coins in their strong boxes.  This was the origin of a bank issued CREDIT.  Issued as a debt-loan. 

 

A nation’s financial system… no matter what form money takes, in REALITY it is an elaborate ticket system for keeping the nation's book-keeping accounts.  

 

It is one of the most ingenious inventions of the human mind.  By placing prices on goods, and distributing money, people can present their own claims and have their own choices  for the particular goods they want.  

 

But we have been so indoctrinated to believe that the words 'finance' and 'economics' are interchangeable and refer to the same things, that we now have great difficulty in distinguishing between real wealth and the money system. 

 

The private institution by its control of the monetary mechanism within the nation, and now, internationally, controls every aspect of social life.   This is tyranny. 

 

I have found that many Christian don’t realise they confuse the Old and Original Tithe ---  PAID IN KIND  ---  and their monetary contributions to the Church they attend.  Even Ministers confuse the terms.  In their minds the words are interchangeable.

Please bear in mind:  We must distinguish between REAL WEALTH (weal… well-being) and Mammon (Money).  Economics and Finance are not interchangeable terms.

 

When a farmer grows a filed of potatoes …  he does not at the same time grow money which he uses in his commercial dealings.  There is not a ‘money tree’ in his field whose fruit he can harvest if he wants to become involved in modern commerce and trade.

 

Once the ancient Israelites were responsible to pay the annual Tax of half a shekel (at the time precious metal by weight) they were caught up in Mammon’s web of deceit.  

 

Social Credit teaching insists we must have a ‘just relationship between the mind and things’ - correct definitions of words are important.  How can we discuss a subject when we haven’t determined the meaning of the words involved?

 

I was not satisfied with the statement in the New Testament “The love of money is the root of all evil”  It didn’t tell me enough… I couldn’t ‘get a handle’ on it – couldn’t use the words as a tool for thinking about the matter.

 

I have paraphrased that sentence as follows: “The love of money, that is, the preference for money, in terms of personal advancement, ABOVE ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS, is the root, of all kinds of evil.”  

 

Hewlett Edwards in  “The Cultivation of History” helped me: “There is a saying among the south sea islanders” he wrote: Know the roots and you will know the tree. Know the tree and behold! It will answer to your cultivation. … It is in this difficult complexity (of history) that POLICY is crystalised and becomes history in which men of understanding as well as of action have erected signposts for the use of those who come after them.    He who writes history, chooses history…”

 

This love of, this preference for, the control of the money system , and the POWER that stems from that control – above all other considerations –has roots stretching back into ancient times.

 

William Barclay’s commentaries enlightened me here:  MAMMON which modern man translates as MONEY has an interesting history.

"The word Mammon had a most curious and a most revealing history. It comes from a root which means to entrust; and mammon was that which a man entrusted to a banker or to a safe deposit of some kind.  

Mammon was the wealth which a man entrusted to someone to keep safe for him.  But as the years went on mammon came to

mean, not that which is entrusted, but that in which a man puts his trust. The end of the process was that mammon came to be spelled with a capital M and came to be regarded as nothing less than a god."- - Daily Study Bible, New Testament Matthew 6:24.

 

21st century man, need go no further back than 1694 to study Mammon.  

That is when the government of the day handed over to the Bank of England the legislative power to issue the nation’s CREDIT  - a form of money – out of thin air. It was one of the greatest betrayals of the English people by their leaders as can be imagined.  

 

Professor Steve Keen of the University of West Sydney recently spoke about this well-guarded secret.  It can be viewed on Youtube… just google Steve Keen Youtube and you will find it,

 

Eric Butler wrote of the background history of that betrayal in “The Enemy Within the Empire” and that booklet can be downloaded from the League’s website to read. 

 

Australian history records that the Commonwealth bank was set up as a “People’s Bank” for the benefit of the people – but, thanks to both sides of party politics, over time, the bank was weakened, then gutted and finally sold off – privatised -  during Paul Keating’s prime ministership. Those who drafted the Commonwealth Constitution Act,  well understood what they were doing when they left the POWER to create CREDIT in the hands of private banks. The People, not realising or understanding the importance of that power in the foundational structure of this new nation  voted by referendum, to pass the Act.

 

While private banking interests retained the power to create credit --- a form of money --- the Government’s POWER was limited to the issuing of the nation’s coins and notes.   

 

A private institution, with control of a nation’s monetary mechanism (with a preference for personal advancement, above all other considerations),  is a tyranny. The Sovereignty of a Democracy, the Sovereignty of a Free People, demands effective control of monetary policy through their Governmental/Legislative process. It affects the rights of individuals, and their relations with each other - more than any other factor of social life, it is the most important function of a Free People.

 

In a modern community, where the production of goods and services is now a SOCIAL FUNCTION, there is a great need to provide a MECHANISM whereby ALL may feast at the table of abundance God has provided–  not just those in privileged positions and those who have employment.  

 

At the moment there are many who, along with the dogs, have to scramble for the crumbs on the floor under the table…Over the years, social crediters have sought to point pastors and priests to these truths but the responses have been along these lines: “We would rather not get involved in this affair.  We are happy enough that the poor and the unemployed scramble for the crumbs under the table, the crumbs that we (the church) , along with government bureaucrats, dole out to the poor and needy.  We would rather not see them feasting on the Abundant Provisions laid out on God’s table.”

 

I have thought long and hard about the truths within the Parables of our Lord.  

 

Take the one about “The Unjust Steward”.  I couldn’t understand why Jesus commended such a crook for his action -- but then it hit me.  

Yes, this fellow did ‘cook the books’ of his Master, who subsequently dismissed him,  but he was commended because as one of the children of THAT generation he was smarter, shrewder, more cunningly wiser than the children of Light.   

 

Weren’t we told to be “As wise as Serpents AND as gentle as doves? 

 Jesus whipped the money lenders out of the Temple accusing them of making His Father’s House “a den of thieves’.  How was that so?  Matt. 21:13 John 2: 14-15

 

While the term ‘money lenders’ is used in most translations it doesn’t convey to this generation the full meaning.

 

The ‘Money Changers’ carried out similar functions to the modern banking system. “In Palestine, as in Egypt, each district had its basilikai trapezai ("royal bank") retained from Hellenistic times (Jos., Life 38), and probably each village had its own money changer (cf. Sif. Deut., 306).

 

Three Greek words are used for the New Testament term "money-changer":
(a) kermatistēs (John 2:14),
(b) kollybistēs (Matt. 21:12), and
(c) trapezitēs (literally, shulḥani; Matt. 25:27, et al.) 

 

The Money Changers fulfilled three major functions: 

(a) foreign exchange, 

(b) the changing of large denominations into small ones, and vice versa, 

(c) banking. 

 

The ‘Money Changers’ in Jerusalem would set up their "tables" in the outer court of the Temple for the convenience of the numerous worshipers, especially those from foreign countries (Matt. 21:12–13). Excavations around the Temple walls have uncovered stores or kiosks, some of which, it has been surmised, were occupied by money changers. An additional and interesting feature of his (the banker’s) business was the payment on request of sums deposited with him for that purpose.

 

After many years of following the thread of the money question, Douglas insisted: “The monetary system is the PIVOT of the economic structure.” It is the crucial point on which the economic structure turns.  It is not wealth, it is the MEANS by which we deal with the wealth. REAL--- THAT IS THE REAL WEALTH

 

The Control of a nation’s monetary POLICY is a Sovereign Power.  It determines the extent to which the community as a whole, and its members individually, can get what they want in the economic field. The Sovereignty of a Democracy, that is the Sovereignty of a Free People, demands effective control of monetary policy.  Monetary POLICY affects the rights of individuals, and their relations with each other - more than any other factor of social life. 

 

We were told in Scripture: Matthew 6:24-34 (Luke 12:24-27) “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin (economic system) ; 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his (man-made) glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little  faith?  Solomon was of course …the Money Power of his day.  A man-made system.

 

The field exists for the lily…  not the lily for the field.  The Group exists, the nation exists, the community exists, for the growth, the development, the flowering of the Individual. 

 

Need I go on?  But as Douglas pointed out all those years ago….  Until we strive for the right MECHANISM to Incarnate  the Christian Ethic and the Golden Rule all is just nice words.  

 

Douglas foresaw the immense conflicts resulting from the financial system’s POLICY of employment as the condition by which men and women could gain access to the means of life. What were the industrialised nations going to do with all the unsold products being churned out of their factories?  He couldn’t see any conservative organised group capable of resisting the immense political forces being employed to keep Finance in the control of those who had it. It was the same Finance which now has such power over the lives and even the intelligence of the peoples of this world.

 

Bearing in mind Douglas was writing in the 1930s.  He predicted:  Under stress of financial compulsion the highly industrialised nations will have to compete for such markets as those of China and the undeveloped regions of the Middle and the Far East. 

 

That has happened before our very eyes.  

 

The Technocracy Movement

I was reminded of the group upon reading an email from a UK group.  They want to know how the people of the UK will gain access to their cash – that is their notes and coins – if they don’t have a bank account --- CREDIT?  

 

The Post Office is closing its Easy Access Savings Account facility, the only readily available access to cash, i.e., to notes and coins of the realm, may be through a single banker’s card. This could have profound implications for constitutional rights. 

And they ask:  “Is the cashless carbon currency economy only just around the corner?

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/accessingcash

 

Do you not see that nice words are not enough……………FINIS 

 

Within a modern community, where the production of goods and services is now a SOCIAL FUNCTION, surely we need to determine that the MECHANISM, whereby all shall feast at the abundant provisions on the table – are not just for those in privileged positions and those who have employment… but are for ALL?

 

 

Perhaps the most important fundamental idea which can be conveyed at this time, in regard to the money problem—an idea on the validity of which certainly stands or falls anything I have to say on the subject—is that it is not a problem of value measurement.  The proper function of a money system is to control and direct the production and distribution of goods and services.  It is, or should be, an ‘order’ system, not a reward system.  It is essentially a mechanism of administration, subservient to policy, and it is because it is superior to all other mechanisms of administration, that the money control of the world is so immensely important. 

Social Credit which recognizes that the credit of the nation belongs to the populace and not to a clique of credit monopolists who falsely claim ownership of the credit they create by way of loans and thereby appropriate the communal capital.  Any society that is so intellectually bankrupt as to allow its real assets to be recorded as a liability probably deserves to be destroyed.  The "things" the deficit is used to purchase are entirely real--they represent actual achieved physical accomplishments and  results.  Realistic accountancy would ensure the full distribution of all production without need for consumer or residual financial debt.  However, if the people revolt in their current state of ignorance about financial cost accountancy, God help up!  Perhaps that is exactly the strategy being pursued in order to establish a full-blown dictatorship.  

 

Wally Klink