Forgiveness
is the First Step “But whoever has been
forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47).
As
“Take Back” protests take place around the Western world, and the debt
crisis spreads (often hidden below the surface) like mold around a
greasy kitchen, it seems to me that the first step towards a real
solution is glaringly obvious, though I have not yet heard the idea put
forward.
It goes something like this:
Make 2012
the year of the First International “Jubilee”: a world wide
forgiveness/erasure of all debts. In other words, hit the reset button.
Imagine
erasing all debt, international, national, and personal, and then
bringing in radically overhauled and much fairer monetary systems,
which aren’t structured – and therefore dependent on – the creation of
debt. (There are many creative and talented minds working towards
developing this!)
Of course there would be much
opposition to this idea, but it would not be from the citizens of most
countries, who are currently mired in monetary systems that have long
drained their work (energy) into a mathematical black hole of debt in
exchange for a constantly devalued savings (value of work completed).
Indeed
it would be very revealing about the true nature of our current systems
to see where the opposition would emerge from; only the largest leeches
would be losing out. The major creditor nations should have little to
complain about such a plan; there is no way for the debts they are owed
to be repaid anyway; unless perhaps, banks intend to start seizing
large portions of land, and placing the residents there into labour
camps.
“The blessing of the year
of jubilee releases the obligation of punishments. After sinners have
been purged, the cause against them ends. All the guilty go free by the
mercy of God's kingdom, as set forth in the law of Levi” (From a
13th century Latin hymn).
Though
many will scoff at the proposal of a “jubilee”, it is not without
historical precedent (albeit on smaller scales); a form of it practiced
within both the Judaic and Christian traditions. Maybe we should ask:
did our ancestors have an awareness that we have carelessly forgotten?
Though
it is not popular today to speak of “religious superstitions”, and
certainly not considered serious within academic (let alone economic)
circles, our ancestors had wisdom about the “force” or “God” of wealth
that we would do well to consider. Our ancestors knew that the
generation of profit feeds off of the energy (work) of humanity and is
more powerful than any human being. They knew that this resulted in the
energy (work) of humanity being enslaved to this force, leaving humans
increasingly unable to work for the common good – and the upholding of
the law – through the creation of communal value (work completed that
serves the communities in which we live), instead becoming trapped in
the daily “worshipping” of this “god” of wealth.
Many
academics and other “serious” people might not like it being said, but
we are in bondage to the god of profit. The worlds’ biggest
institutions, the corporations, are legally bound to strive for the
generation of profit each quarter, no matter what the long term and
“external” costs to the people and planet. As a result, we work to
destroy immeasurably valuable facets of our own (and other) communities
in a massive transfer of wealth (value of completed work) into the
hands of an elite few who live lavishly.
Meanwhile,
the average worker sees the value of his or her work completed
(savings/wealth) diminish each year due to inflationary pressures
caused by the creation of debt. “Just invest” is the advice we receive,
convinced to gamble on the market that is rigged in the favour of the
wealthy, in turn becoming (minor) shareholders for whom the
corporations must strive to earn quarterly profits. Thus we are
encouraged to further invest our applied energy (completed work,
savings) in the system that drains our energy (work) into the black
hole of debt (and consequently devalues our savings; the value of our
work) in the first place.
Despite what the “experts”
and the expert defenders of the “experts” say, this idea of debt
erasure – really, a practice in forgiveness – is not outrageous. In
fact, it follows common sense. Human beings should work for the
sustainable betterment of their lives and the lives of those around
them and those who come after them. They should not be bound by
mathematics – a tool that should be used to aide us, not enslave us –
to expend their energy on projects, ideas, products and systems that
give little to nothing back to the community in terms of real value,
are often entirely unsustainable, and are totally unresponsive to any
input that doesn’t increase profits.
That said there
will be no surprise from his observer when people immediately dismiss
and slander the idea of forgiving/erasing all debt, no doubt with much
scoffing and sneering. After all most of us are no longer working for
the interests of humanity; our thoughts are not our own; our vision is
no longer clear; we are gripped firmly in the talons of Mammon the god
of greed, the god of profit who consumes our energy and determines our
values. From such a position all humane, common sense perspectives
appear to be “insane”, “uneducated”, “impractical”, “imprudent”,
“disadvantageous”, “communism,” “radicalism”, and so on and so on.
Despite
these dismissals, the mold is taking root, and the black hole is
pulling with enormous force, so we can either deny and scoff, scoff and
deny, inevitably falling into the abyss, or else we can collectively
break free, taking hold of our vision for the future by letting go of
the tyrannical bonds of an illusory mathematical necessity, forgiving
each other, forgiving ourselves, and forgiving those who are yet to
come.