Systems and Social Credit

By: Socred - B.A., SCMP

C.H. Douglas claims that the self-development of man is above all systems. Therefore; any economic, political, or theological system which does not allow individuals the freedom to express themselves in a manner leading to self-development is tyrannical. Douglas believed that there exists three alternative polices for an economic system:

"In regard to (a) the policy of the world economic system amounts to a philosophy of life. There are really only three alternative policies in respect to a world economic organisation: The first is that the end in itself for which man exists. The second is that while not an end in itself, it is the most powerful means of constraining the individual to do things he does not want to do; e.g., it is system of government. This implies a fixed ideal of what the world ought to be. And the third is that the economic activity is simply a functional activity of men and women in the world; that the end of man, while unknown, is something towards which most rapid progress is made by the free expansion of individuality, and that, therefore, economic organisation is most efficient when it most easily and rapidly supplies economic wants without encroaching on other functional activities." (C.H. Douglas, "Warning Democracy")

Since Douglas did not see economic systems as an end in themselves, but only as a means to meeting the end of individual self-development, the first policy is not consistent with Social Credit. The second alternative posits a policy of the way the world ought to be, but again, Douglas claimed that, "so far as the word 'ought' has any meaning, it postulates the existence of a force so far undemonstrated", and therefore, we must conclude that an economic system as a form of government is not what Douglas had in mind. Social Credit economics is positive, and contrasts with any economic theories which are normative. Consequently; it is the third policy that Douglas extrapolates which is consistent with Social Credit. This implies that our needs and wants are best satisfied when an economic system allows the free expansion of individual activity.

"That is to say, we must build up from the individual, not down from the state." (C.H. Douglas, "Economic Democracy")

The antithesis of Social Credit policy is the exaltation of the state, together with the financial methods in which it is maintained, over the individual. This policy is fundamentally anti-Christian. When John F. Kennedy said, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country", this was not only contrary to Social Credit policy, it is contrary to his statement in the same speech in which he said, "the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God". Individual rights come from God, not the abstraction known as the state. Therefore; it is the state that should be asking what it can do for us. John F. Kennedy's famous quote is fundamentally anti-Christian.

"The modern theory, if it can be called modern, of the totalitarian state, for instance, to the effect that the state is everything and the individual nothing, is a departure from those principles, and is a revamping of the theory of the later Roman Empire, which theory, together with the financial methods by which it was maintained, led to Rome's downfall, not by the conquest of stronger Empires, but by its own internal dissensions. It is a theory involving complete inversion of fact, and is, incidentally, fundamentally anti-Christian, in that it exalts the mechanism of government into an end rather than a means, and leads to the assumption that individuals exist for the purpose of allowing officials to exercise power over them." (C.H. Douglas, "Tragedy of Human Effort")

The exaltation of the state over the individual is an inversion of fact, because the state is merely an abstract representation of the individuals which comprise it. The individual is the basic building block from which all systems derive. Any political, economic, or theological system which represses the free expression of individuality is doomed to failure. We see this with examples such as the later Roman Empire, to the dominance of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, to the Soviet Union. Individuals will ultimately break free from any system which seeks to dominate them. This is a good lesson to the West in terms of its foreign policy towards the non-democratic states in the Middle East. These theocracies try to repress individual expression, and these states are doomed to failure via their own internal dissension. It is a mistake to unite them against a common enemy other than the theological system which is imposed upon them. The western world should to be a beacon of light for others to follow, not a force of darkness for others to hate. Unfortunately; a hidden form of government has led to our own fight against a system imposed upon us from above.

"When a monetary system dictates your actions, then you are governed by money, and you have the most subtle, dangerous and undesirable form of government that the perverted mind of man - if it is the mind of man - has ever conceived." (C.H. Douglas, "Approach to Reality")

Money is the most subtle form of government, because people don't realize that they are being governed by a monetary system. There are few people who comprehend how money is created, let alone, how it is used to govern them. If the public is ignorant as to the techniques of money and banking, they will never realize how the monetary system governs them. The current monetary system is dangerous, because as Douglas said, "money is an abstraction", and an abstraction should never have authority over the extant. This is an inversion of reality, and as an old saying goes, "Demon est deus in versus - the devil is God upside down " The world is being ruled by a monetary system which deprives man of the ability to achieve self-development, because it does not accurately represent the reality of the economic conditions upon which it should be based.

"Considered as a means of making people work (an aim which is common both to the Capitalist and Socialist Party politics) the existing financial system, as a system, is probably nearly perfect. Its banking system, methods of taxation and accountancy counter every development of applied science, organisation, and machinery, so that the individual, instead of obtaining the benefit of these advances in the form of a higher civilisation and greater leisure, is merely enabled to do more work." (C.H. Douglas, "Warning Democracy")

Technology, improvement in processes, and increases in the amount of physical capital are constantly reducing the amount of hours necessary to produce goods and services. This means that we can continue to produce the same amount with less labour; we can produce more with the same amount of labour, or any combination of the two. This fact has significantly increased in importance since the beginning of the industrial revolution, which resulted in the replacement of human energy with solar energy. The current economic system fails to reflect this fact. The invention of technologies such as the computer, which should have freed us from many hours of work, has simply been a tool enabling us to do more work. This is because the existing financial system, whether governed by a political party from the "left" or the "right", is ultimately governed by a policy of full employment. This policy is an inversion of the facts, and as a result, is both anti-Christian and tyrannical.

"In regard to the objective of policy, as applied to human affairs, I can say nothing to you which has not been better said by the great teachers of humanity, One of whom said "I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly." So far as I am aware, no great teacher of humanity has ever announced that he came that we might have better trade or more employment, and I am wholly and irrevocably convinced that while we exalt a purely materialistic means into an end, we are doomed to destruction. (C.H. Douglas, "Tragedy of Human Effort").

Douglas believes that most men, left to their own devices, would choose a less materialistic, and more spiritualistic existence. It is only through the efforts of anti-Christian forces that a materialistic end to man is sought. Given the freedom to choose between a materialistic existence based upon work for its own sake, or a spiritual one based upon leisure, Douglas believes that most men will choose the latter. Leisure is often confused with the concept of "loafing". The Greeks understood that leisure differed from rest. Leisure is the freedom to pursue activities that lead to self-development. The statement that "idle hands are the work of the devil" is a perversion of means and ends, and the most established form of anti-Christian propaganda today: often championed by so called "Christians" themselves. As Soren Kierkegaard said, "Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good."