Kuba: I remember a correspondence on the AFT where Richard kept mentioning something like “this will make more sense once you see what money actually is”. I could never quite get this, because I always believed that money was a currency that was more efficient at trade vs trading physical goods.
But yesterday I started wondering, is “what money actually is” one of the tools that can be used to enforce (in disguise) what is essentially modern day serfdom? That for those warlords money would be an extremely effective tool to keep the peasantry working away for merely crumbs without realising just what is going on. After all if I was to hand over a weeks worth of grain for a few crumbs of bread I could not help but see the blatant exploitation, perhaps eventually leading to a revolt by the peasant masses.
Hi Kuba,
The serfdom and exploitation of the peasants existed long before the “Monetary Crimes”. I just now remembered a story ‘Vineeto’s’ then-mother read out to the young siblings and ‘her’ on a winter’s evening about peasants bringing their grain to the Landlord in exchange for other goods in return, when one bright lad figured out that the Landlord’s scales were corrupt – so that on top of the meagre exchange rate they were additionally diddled of their ‘just’ reward for their hard work. There was no happy ending to the story, the one who had the power ‘won’ the dispute. ‘Vineeto’ was about 10-yrs at the time and I remember that this injustice affected ‘her’ deeply. ‘She’ had just found out, via this realistic story, that life in the world was not just and fair.
You are still correct in your thinking that “money was a currency that was more efficient at trade vs trading physical goods”, while your thinking about going back to exchanging grain for other goods is highly unpractical and certainly not a viable solution for the massive monetary corruption, just like a “revolt by the peasant masses” is not a solution either. You can work this out for yourself when you acquaint yourself with some of the history of peasant revolts. The minor revolts were squashed by those who owned the guns, and mass revolutions, many of them in the name of ‘communist’ revolutions all turned into dictatorships with atrocious bloodshed by the new rulers. Here is the number of people being killed by their own governments – (Richard, Abditorium, 160 Million War Deaths, #Autocratic Governments). It far exceeds war-deaths.
I tried to access the link Richard gave for the book of Alexander de Mar, A History Of Monetary Crimes 1899-1983 but it had expired. Here is a current link – https://alor.org/Storage/Library/PDF/DelMar_A-A_History_Of_Monetary_Crimes.pdf
It is certainly a fascinating read and I remember when Richard first told me about the book 10 years ago. Here is a short quote –
“In 1662 Charles II. confirmed this renewal (of the money-coining and monopoly privileges of the East-India company) and, for a corrupt consideration, permanently established this Company of money-changers, privateers, fillibusters and bullies. From that year dates a new order of men in England. The Estates formerly consisted of the Crown, the Church, the Lords and the Commons. To these were now added the financiers, or Billoneurs, who have since almost entirely swallowed the others. Originally the financiers consisted of 215 monopolists under the title of the East India Company: they now comprise the entire world of money‑changers and bankers. This cosmopolitan band threatens the peace of mankind.” (Page 9).
Richard’s comments on the book and money-matters and the peasant mentality in general are as relevant today as they were then (Richard, List D, Rick, 3 June 2015) as well as this one (Richard, List D, Claudiu3, 18 May 2015).
Kuba: Where it seems to really get weird is that the values which eventually spring up from this system are designed to perpetuate the exploitation and yet the peasants learn to love and fight for… To even die for those very values, to sacrifice themselves and others for ‘freedom’ or for equality etc.
Yes indeed, that is the very sickness of the human condition. Again, descriptions such as ‘Stockholm syndrome’ or ‘Oslo Syndrome’ come to mind while it can also be called the tragedy of hope. And yet loyalty and belonging are the predominant passionate factors. Richard said to ‘Vineeto’ several times – “the human condition is very weird and the process of getting out of it can be equally weird at times.”
In short, as long as the peasant mentality exists, there will be peasants/ wage-slaves / social climbers and their insanely rich puppet masters and anything in-between. I found it very helpful to fully understand how the system of exploitation works in order to fully recognize that, just like ‘me’ the identity, it is too rotten to improve or revamp, for a lasting solution – it needs to disappear out of the human psyche in all its manifestations.
What is needed is a bloodless revolution by implementing the Third Alternative. There is no other way.
Cheers Vineeto