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One quick glance at modern social indicators of the effectiveness of the political, judicial and economic pillars of our respective homelands is all that is required to determine that it is so off -balance that civil strife is inevitable. Moreover and tragically, the pillars, rather than reflecting free social interactions, appear to be geared to distant motors, unbelievably turning their backs to each other. How could apparently free and modern democracies have arrived at this unnerving situation?
Whilst this may sound like journalistic sensationalism, it is so easy to demonstrate that it seems impossible that the monitoring and conditioning by myriad supportive but no less important social institutions like the Universities, Professional bodies, the Press, Syndicates and Economic Advisory Boards seem switched off. They appear to make sounds only when dragged to the public forums and media stands and always caught unprepared. The state-of-the-art patchwork that goes for media debates appear to be more geared to entertainment and less reflective of the underlying social problems of modern democracies. This reality inertia threatens to engulf the majority of its citizens with hitherto unheard of stresses caused by debt and unceasing fiscal demands – not to mention the decline in social vitality and slavery to a robotic civil service carrying out the orders of the relentless and demanding guardians of the public coffers. The regular staccato bursts of local, regional and national dues with severe penalties and threats over food and roof which cripple most families is hardly what one could call consensual agreement by the people for its own security and general services. It goes beyond that. It destroys the very fiber of faith in leadership and family ties. For those bent on reducing public purchasing power with hidden inflation covered by false statistics, desperation leads to social ills that are immediately visible. Crime soars – homelessness abound and suicides start from adolescence. These, the so-called poor dragged into a system of political laundering are the classic victims, but whereas enterprise and channels of self-improvement were always readily available, today the banking taps engaged on self-lubrication focus on another interest – on their stock exchange prices geared to the needs of their executive shareholders picking off the wasting bodies of their forced client victims. It sounds even more surreal to be true, but the economic records of the exchange and the large monopolies show the highs and lows caused by almost blind investment making and losing trillions.
The increasing size of the energy, water and telecommunications bills speak for themselves. It is, after all, the poor who live in that wretched world of deprivation and fear and the clear divide between those favored by the system and those ignored has never been so clear. It is also easy to see where the politicians and their favors lead to against hungry party systems. Is it that difficult to understand why the Banks have broken all records in their disregard for client interests and merely attach them to state-of-the-art electronic devices designed to remove their voices from the ears of their personnel? The message is clear. They want to continue evolving as privileged chosen people to do their own thing in the guise of a public service originally chartered as an institution geared to spread wealth throughout all the classes without prejudice or self interests. Retail outlets therefore are of little use to their colossal needs especially when general average incomes do not even stretch the citizens to the end of the month, leaving zero balances in most current and deposit accounts. Most of these money catchments will be closed before the end of the decade – the reason, “cost effectiveness”. In other words, “people are not saving much and cannot justify our overheads”. The privileged banking system fell off its pedestal and like many other public services which turned into massive uncontrollable monopolies, no amount of declining worker income could possibly provide what risk-free funding from reserve banks as lenders and “saviors” – whatever the circumstances – providing all the money needed at zero cost. It is no coincidence that despite understanding the low returns, if any, against investment policies and the myriad new bond-associated instruments trapping millions daily, during the boom years all mortgage shields and acclaimed high return pools provided losses as sad returns. Where did all those mega fortunes go? The lamentable IOS giant, Baring and Lloyds are but a fraction of what went under through sheer ignorance and smug financial operations way beyond the understanding of the average top bank executive who was wont to refer any press enquiry to their so-called experts.
Whereas this alone would have constituted a delinquent line of development which had already brought down huge and healthy investment catchments, it crossed the vigilance barriers and made the average citizen the modern day guinea pig. How? – simply through the dire bail-outs by the terrified Governments unable to countenance a national currency devaluation. The dramatic and ridiculous situation supposedly created by the wonder George Soros which brought Britain and Thatcher to her knees needs little recounting except that the millions of stricken businesses providing a sound commercial base had no one to turn to as interests soared and assets devalued to a tenth of their normal market values.
Mistakes of the Past and Economic Messiahs:
Sadly, the mistakes of the past – the lack of proper understanding of the role of the social Institutions and the breakdown of ethical controls – have led most countries to internal and external conflicts geared to bring man to war or public confrontations. Both armies and enforcement agencies have successfully tapped into the treasury coffers with clear vision of what was in store. Yet nothing was ever done to cap that narrow corridor of vested interests and selected few which society had until fairly recently kept well in place by strict and intelligent forecast and control. But is there time for change when everything indicates a deadly world recession? Perhaps, but only with strong public demand and clear presentation of the way by ethically-bound political missionaries the likes of which are now beginning to stir. Economic Messiahs may well evolve and take over from the traditional ones with ethical standards as the religious wrappings of their main base. It should warn of the dangers of extreme ideologies from those violent reactionaries unwilling to take the pressure of unjust persecution or threat. Racism and whimsical utopian social aims are the seeds of the collective human sacrifice of war rather than borderline existence. Donald Trump is not as coincidental a phenomenon as the quaking bankers might suggest but a full expression of these sentiments born of a sense of helplessness. The facts speak – the causes and effects are vividly illustrated in as pantheistic a multitude as Southern Europe for example. The problem is that successes – as the recent crowd against petrol costs have achieved is highly contagious and the spark in the tinder box may well now become the rampant fires of discontent.
The extraordinarily rich are about as untouched, as we shall see as they always were for some peculiar reason and the poor can no longer pretend to have time for anything other than to try to stretch out meager incomes against the escalating demands of the giant monopolies. These mammoth Queen Bees pampered by the politicians for obvious reasons contribute less and less to the public coffers yet control the cost of living of the average man as directly as if they had their hands in his pocket. Unfortunately, and perhaps by design, they belong in the main to the category of basic needs and which are now even bases for indirect taxation in an unholy alliance between trade and state that has become a new channel of indirect taxation. Both parties extract agreements from each other as prices escalate to meet the demands of the stock exchange peculiarities and the enrichment of the insider majority shareholders garbed in executive function with the capability of creating whatever picture they choose to raise or drop share prices at a stroke. But can it really be that cynically real? Unfortunately, even the guarded press, afraid of losing its advertising life sap, has to fire the broadsides that demonstrate that, in the main, its perpetrators rest deeply in the system and proving it, defies the means of the judicial system. However, it takes little imagination on the part of any bystander to see that a top executive sitting on information not yet publicly disclosed like profit figures or lucky acquisitions, can buy market shares discreetly through offshore companies before the calculated rise. The related scandals that have come to light and justice in this current year in Europe, are but the tip of the iceberg with impoverished giant enterprises seeing the backs of absconding top executives full to the brim with booty from these sources.
By sitting pretty on the basic needs of those least able to pay for them, the opium of the masses cannot rely now on alcohol, nicotine or even soft drugs as public consciousness of the addiction eliminates it gradually. Play Stations, mobiles and screens take over with equal results but the effects go beyond the mental suppression of the past and Western democracies are just about seeing the calamitous horizon. At basic level it is putting unemployable people on the streets but the insidious effect of this indirect communication with reality also creates a steadily increasingly strong black market where even the State cannot follow. In short, the easiest way out of not having to work or take orders from anybody is to nest in the social media or hook on to lands of fantasy laced with addictive violence. The parental homes of these unfortunates become their prisons and their dependence create the stifled violence that breaks the family down as never before.
The Impunity of State-Aided Monopolies:
Allowing public taxation to feed the suppliers of basic public commodities as now happens with water and electricity bills in Europe, heightens the effect on belt tightening. Seemingly created to avoid direct subventions to these greedy monopolies, it favors the ambitious politicians and parties who look for future retirement sinecures at top salary levels. It has only just recently come to light that Bankers can and do follow the same course with subsequent bail-outs by the State disguised as returnable loans – debts that cannot and never get paid back into the dwindling public coffers. To do justice to the incredible liaison between State and State-aided monopolies would need more than a mere article, but perhaps raising all these points in context will give body to the size and nature of the forces that are presently destroying both cultural and economic capabilities of the democratic societies. However, it is worth mentioning that none of this would have ever come about without the aid of carefree, if not calculated, planning of the international banking system. As the vociferous and crafty President of the United States said recently “Our problem is not China, but the Federal Reserve” is also illustrated in the comment by Lord Rothschild to the Iron Lady in Britain “The power is in the holder of the purse….” And so it has always been, so whatever influences are in that sector, friend or foe, that is where the drive comes from. It follows that any major changes in the transformation of a society seeking freedom to express its constitutional values, have to start with the Banking system followed by the Stock Exchange itself. But what of currency valuations that now send Governments racing to the international bankers? Getting away from that problematic approach to instant cooking of awry books by unsophisticated leaders of modern governments is no easy task, but not impossible or too difficult. What is really becoming a question of civil provocation are the dictates of unseen powers eating further into the public pocket to solves issues that could have been avoided in the first instance. To come to grips with this, a more natural valuation of national currencies, devoid of access to any but its people and enterprise, is the way to the future for countries with strong economies willing to go it alone. Gottfried Feder, an anti-Private Central Bank German economist would have said it better, but it is worth taking a look at his incredibly advanced “Manifesto” which led to giant changes that actually worked. It could be said that no nation is truly sovereign if its lifeline is attached to an international economic control. The truly independent and ethically well-entrenched nations are probably the only ones that could engineer and construct a society that could remove these ills from its inner workings and raise the flag to a freedom and prosperity entirely dependent on its beliefs and aspirations.
Compounded Lies in Cartel-Style Taxation:
The bare-faced monopolistic suppliers of basic necessities like electricity, water, petrol, telephone and internet access (indispensable in a modern household) can do what even Governments cannot do short of putting debtors in jail for non-payment. Yet they can increase costs religiously despite the pressure brought to bear on the politicians. How? Simply by not only camouflaging the increases as indirect social taxes to save political skins but by creating new channels of increases that cannot be attributed to the cost of the consumption itself which is barefaced abuse of the worst kind. But where did all this technically illegal harassment acquire such impunity? Easier asked than answered, but essentially because of the unethical relationship which mutual vested interest of politicians and monopolists have bred in silent interdependence. It turned both into accomplices of new and undetectable indirect taxes in exchange for behind the scene consumer-paid subsidies. Subtle propaganda in carefully staged television debates left the public in no doubt that the cost of their services were way beyond that of other nations and increases were inevitable but perhaps avoidable. These were blatant lies which could be easily confirmed by those with the time and flair for tabling cost indicators of other economies. In exchange for these manipulations, added stresses also stretched family incomes as politicians secured top jobs with these monopolies upon retirement from top of the ladder government figures. In one European State 40 of the top executives of these monopolies were former ministers. The Banking Institutions both nationally and internationally also betrayed their presence. It is not difficult therefore to see that greed and power lust have created vicious circles tuned against the hapless consumers. The recent yellow jacket riots in France are but the tip of the iceberg of what is to come and it must be noted that in this particular case, the Government caved in. What is left to the imagination is how the consumer will pay for it in the end, given the lack of divisionary barriers between the players of this dirty game of musical chairs. Meanwhile, an unprecedented number of pensioners and low income earners live by candlelight and bin refuse pillages as can now be seen regularly in most cities.
By allowing themselves to become channels of indirect taxation camouflaged under a barrage of dubious additional services, the giant energy, water and telecommunication entities apart from being able to manipulate share values as monopolies (to the detriment of the average shareholders), also work from unassailable strongholds which corner the markets. Like the banking system bosses they turn to Governments with undisguised blackmail for rescue funds having first assured themselves of golden retirements to cover the supposed services rendered. It is a mystery today where most of the banking funds ever went for such supposed losses but shareholders never saw the light of dividends or even in some cases, minimum growth. In fact, millions have lost their complete investments despite the boom periods that should have fed into them to cover the negligent ones.
Today, the add-ons on the energy bills almost double the consumption cost to the anger of desperate users so the yellow jacket affair may well be copied dangerously in other countries to an unheard of level of political instability. The dangers of the recent escalation of costs demonstrate how monopolies create a vortex which eventually brings about conflict between government and people out of sheer desperation. As a result, a secondary black market banking service based on usury is now coming to the surface and abusers have been called to attention but needless to say without any resultant effect on the continuous losses of family assets created by their inability to pay them. A typical 100,000 Euros loan from banking sources but loaned from the racketeers, now demands a minimum of 15% interest plus charges deducted at source equivalent to another 15% (invisible to the Courts, it would seem) which totals 30% for the first year and not guarantee of extensions with similar payments. The interest is paid on the full amount but the recipient borrower only receives 85,000 which further increases the total interest payable for the year. At this moment in time similar quotes for desperate borrowers come in by the cartload in a market which is now displacing banking loans (nearly impossible to obtain) almost entirely. Clearly, the Banking system prefers this avenue of colossal indirect income rather than the Peter’s pence of the dwindling savers which goes to show just how sick it is.
When Quality of Life is Dictated by the Stock Exchanges:
No one can deny that both the quality of life and the loss of voice against the political system has simply gone overboard and that it augurs a worse scenario for the future. What this means of course is a level of social strife that will hopelessly attempt to restore the balance without bloodshed hopefully – a social phenomenon which stems from honest and indignant response to a failing system open to corruption, cultural denial and blind disrespect for human suffering. Any reconstruction of an economic structure independent of international lenders and their demands has therefore to consider the complete dismantling of the Banking and basic service monopolies including the stock exchange system which is on the borders of a crash at any time. A tall order – but not as far-fetched as many would like it to be.
Picking out examples of grave indicators of these emerging social issues in our so-called democracies is a task which requires deep insight into the modern deviation from the idyllic past. The loss of community spirit, faith in Government and growing tendency to reject established parties and bureaucratic interference in their everyday lives are primary indicators; however, working out just where the systems went adrift requires contemplation. The dire loathing, now common, by the different communities of the political and banking system needs little thinking about but the corporate bodies looming behind them have created specific attention for various reasons. What appears to be plunder of their own assets by their own executives (on the way out) has finally been challenged by a public that does not understand why. The lack of redress by governments or courts has left another indelible mark in the public conscience and the sight of the 100-million euro yacht of a notable British CEO who left his household name firm in tatters with no viable pension funds to show for his efforts, has finally caused an outcry. Bankers in identical positions are being held responsible after years of fruitless investigations, but it remains to be seen whether these or all those thousands who got away with it in the past decade will ever have to make amends. This decadence (which has a flavor and tangibility) is now becoming obvious to the average hitherto blind and dumb citizen, to the tune of the possible loss of Europe, the cultural disintegration of many of its member States and the raising of the hitherto dismissed possibility of international conflict. The nightmare is that it no longer rests in the province of the Military Executive but the world Oligarchy of the Mega-economically-endowed platforms owed zillions by Governments who can only promise them military expenditure and war itself in return. This release of whole city land areas, devastated and depopulated, are the only assets redeemable as booty and these will technically become the platforms of future banking guarantees. This is a nightmarish evil prospect but one which amazingly now acquires a stark reality difficult to see before.
In the past, the very institutions which now cease to function properly and which indirectly kept economies on their toes, like the monopolies commissions, banking monitors, retail price controllers and public commissions of enquiry on matters of public interest, now appear to have different lines of contact and invocation which excludes the average citizen. Public interest and political interest, as a prime example, now have blurred meanings with respect to what is meant and by whom. The State, in short, now demonstrates throughout democracies that what is good for the goose is not for the gander, effectively illustrating that survival of the executive is ultimately more important than the downtrodden sections of society and the social ills that they cannot attend to as a result. In fact, the very governments make it clear that they must be protected at any cost to keep them inspired and wealth-creating. What they do not say is “at whose expense and for whom”. Why all this is happening right before our eyes is worth looking at with the hope that reforms will restore this critical and sub-normal state of affairs.
To do that we have to look at the functions of the different foundations and principals on which a democracy is based to attempt to prevent continued decadence and radicalism from emerging from the eroded structures. We have to understand that some aspects of this so-called “government for the people by the people”, is a chimera and impossible to put into practice without social relays and gears that ensure that the public voice is not twisted in midstream by malfunction. It is for this reason that politicians irritatingly smile at the absence of public control of its own affairs. Words like expediency, time factors, “unnecessary” and “regressive” constant referral to the electorate, etc are dismissive of public opinion. Additionally, the gearing of decision making from top to bottom as opposed to the reverse – ensures that the public voice becomes a mere rumble in the distance. Our leaders and advisors are deemed to be better capable of taking the correct collective decisions than a mass of unprepared and ill equipped electorate can offer! What they do not take into account is that a public voice is made up of millions of interpretations and the final collective attitude has to be infinitely more refined than that offered by the few politicians more interested in their own illusions and practicalities than in spending much time on the real interests of the people.
The Gears that Stifle Democracy:
I venture to highlight this state of political mind because ultimately it is abuse of privilege throughout the centuries by despots or guardians of posterity, in democracies or caged communities and the results have always been the same. Any sensitive, intelligent person would shudder at the thought of determining the real reasons behind our historical conflicts and loss of million of innocent lives. In fact, it is impossible for most of us to accept the indecency of the events and the role of just a very few real culprits behind it all, without succumbing to instant depression. It is therefore dismissed at source and as in most cultures, aided by prayer. The privileged, self-elected (and also elected) few against the supine masses – with the latter incapable of finding the channels of their defense – has meant mountainous human sacrifice and irregular wealth distribution through the ages. The incredible culprit – the shield of the top to bottom decision gearing that stands in so-called “public interest”. As a result, the real victims can only hit back with spade and pitchfork against missiles and deadly poisons. Who or what could have ever sanctioned such Satanism ? Even looking at the closest semblance of a democracy, the lost contact between the electorate and their political representatives is immediately obvious. The individual clinical contact with the political voice has simply disappeared as question time in Parliaments restricts issues. This is the first of the dozens of gears which interfere with the whole concept of democracy on the way up the decision line. The second is the chamber of Government debate itself where the public voice is hardly ever heard until it unifies in large enough numbers to alert the ever-wary politicians of the precariousness of their own privileged platform and way of life. The third is the political voice at Ministerial level controlled by its own secrecy and version of public interest. For these to take issues into account is tantamount to waiting for generalized demonstrations likely to affect part interests. Clearly bottom to top decision influences do not exist and thereby hangs the fate of those barely surviving under it. The constant referral to the voice of the urns would work better if elections were annual but then they would say, “it is not in the public interest” and party needs would continue to rule the day, making the average citizen a member of a permanent sacrificial platform probably as bad as any in biblical times. So much for that ill abused Democracy!
The fourth gear leads us to shaky Government platforms with the continuous loss of party member support in the event of social degradation and family concerns.
The fifth is the continuous economic demands of the decentralized, easy spending habits of municipalities often bent on self-interests and endemic corruption (and monuments to boot). Instead of centralized economic controls bleeding the system dry and threatening syndicate action at all times, they create as can be seen, a constant pressure on public expenditure which occupies the attention of the politicians as deficits soar. Little time is left to start considering where they left the electorate behind.
It is perhaps in this light that we can understand how the enthusiasm of a nation can dissipate as the public voice reduces its strength and meaning on its way upwards through the gear box – to end up in committed decisions which have little to do with public needs. In fact, politically speaking, alerting a community in terms of causing ripples, is not in their agenda. The so-called protection of public consciousness (public interest) is little more than a blind for keeping decisions and undue secrecy in Ministerial hands. This grave mistake has alienated a public aware of social derailment and incapable of redressing it because of lack of facts or even minimum media attention. The latter, a once proud defender of the community is now a peculiar form of government propaganda if not entertainment, locked in a canned information system which now dominates this discredited but once hallowed pillar of civil rights. Most of the media is subsidized and therefore technically sterilized.
It would perhaps serve some purpose to illustrate common sentiments on these issues with regularly uttered expressions that we hear all the time in blunt comments like “Don’t believe everything you read”, “The best place to keep your money is under the pillow”, “Bankers are blatant thieves”, “Politicians are all a bunch of liars” etc. These are probably words which have been uttered throughout history but never with the conviction and regularity that we hear them today. Nor can I remember having heard in my youth such sentiments on politicians and bankers who always attracted great respect. Whilst this rejection is disquieting it also augurs a desperate need for change.
Democracy has obviously failed to address this dangerous slide away from family security and the time is ripe for a look at the mechanisms which are creating either incidentally or by intent the very trembling of the foundations which threaten the last of the democracies which have survived this last century of horror and conflict. Perhaps it is becoming clearer in the light of greater access to good and bad information that these massive genocidal waves are better seen as having been potentially avoidable. Perhaps also, if politically-vested interests and the egotistical pride of a few had not driven them to such unbelievably sordid and soul destroying human sacrifice our modern world would have been different and a united Europe a significant reality. Memories however of the young and vulnerable (who flew to causes from which there was no escape and without really understanding what the level of risk was and for what) have not been or can be erased. Beneath the surface the old rivalries are still there as can be seen in the saga of the British Brexit.
The thought that a handful of people from each country if not just their leaders had brought this about, is enough to undermine the mental balance of any ethically-bound, cultured and sentient beings of today’s makeup. However, water under a bridge will not bring those souls back or put back the smile to any of the bereaved families of the participating nations that lost its most treasured siblings to the Gods of War. Perhaps therefore it is worth contemplating the whys and wherefores that can lead the system of level gearings to the unleashing of the horrors that the general population would have willingly avoided at all costs. Looking at it closely explains why democracies fail to put the brakes on before the assembly line carnage moves into place. Surely not by public request or general acceptance, however sustained the propaganda of a fickle, uninformed media helped to blind the issues? Social reform, as will be seen, is late and the material available too set for much dismantling and reconstructing to take place, but change it must and the major cogs must be replaced. I mean Banking, Monopolies, Institutional and political reforms combed through and through to remove the hidden viruses that are behind our ills today.
This concludes Part I of this paper. Part II, A Banking System way Past its Prime;
Democracy – An Embarrassment to the Privileged, will appear in the upcoming March-April issue of this Journal.
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