“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”
Kenneth Boulding. (Economist)
Like many, I have started a crash course on money. For starters, what is money, anyway? Most people think money means bank notes, or minted coins or even numbers in a computer. Fair enough. Where does it come from? Who decides how much of it there is? Isn’t there a finite supply? What are the consequences of infinite supply?
Four years ago I learned of the twin evils of fractional reserve banking and interest. Now I want to know the rest. This film recommended by someone at Stef’s blog, is as good a start as any. (Nothing happens for the first 12 seconds or so.)
Good, wasn’t it?
Nwo, sorry, I mean now for some more delicious quotes…
“None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Erm, that’d be us then.
How about this then?
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men.
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world. No longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”
Woodrow Wilson (after signing the Federal Reserve into existence)
Sounds like a conspiraloon, right? That’s a President of the USA talking.
Interestingly (ha!), Islam was unequivocal about usury over 1400 years ago. (That’s a long time!)
2:276 Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity: For He loveth not creatures ungrateful and wicked.
2:278 O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and give up what remains of your demand for usury, if ye are indeed believers.
2:279 If ye do it not, Take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger: But if ye turn back, ye shall have your capital sums: Deal not unjustly, and ye shall not be dealt with unjustly.
2:280 If the debtor is in a difficulty, grant him time Till it is easy for him to repay. But if ye remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if ye only knew.
Astonishingly, 2:279 is the only place in the Qur’an that war is declared by Allah and His Messenger.
We need to smash the immoral and poverty-creating banking system and replace it with something equitable and liberating. Who’s up for it? And where do we start?
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Fuck the economy! Fuck growth! Fuck capitalism!
Oh, wait, it fucked itself. Again.
Three cheers for the global collapse of capitalism and invented numbers in a world where everything has a price and is up for sale but where nothing has any value.
The time is ripe and right to do things a little differently and the MoD kindly pointed the way out a little while ago:
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The Middle Class Proletariat
The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx. The globalization of labour markets and reducing levels of national welfare provision and employment could reduce peoples’ attachment to particular states. The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision begins to bite. Faced by these twin challenges, the world’s middle-classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest.
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Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!
“Astonishingly, 2:279 is the only place in the Qur’an that war is declared by Allah and His Messenger.”
Of course, the only time Jesus gets physical in the New Testament is when he encounters the money changers
Vote Lib Dem*
*LOL
There’s only one religion that actually permits usury, considering its followers are such a minority it seem surprising that it is so wide-spread.
Usury rewards greed and creates poverty (this is my limited understanding). Religion or no religion, all humans are susceptible to the lure of easy money. Take the National Lottery for example which is effectively a tax on the gullible and stupid (perhaps the latter is a little harsh).
One of my favourite radicals of all time is Jesus (peace be on him). I would have loved to have been there as he overturned the money lenders’ tables. What would he do to the banks today? And how unpopular would that make him?
They’d probably crucify him!
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
Don’t forget that the money-changers were operating not in banks, but in the temple, the Israelites’ equivalent of the Ka’ba mosque.
Trying to get some communications your way Shahid. Great blog site, send me an email if you can for communications. Ramazan mubharek in the mean time. V
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