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EDITORIAL
THE TWO WARS: THE WAR ON MAMMON AND THE WAR ON TERRORISM
© 2001 Macroknow Inc. All Rights Reserved.
RADICAL RELIGIOSITY
G8 governments, multinational economic
institutions (the International Monetary
Fund, The
World Bank Group, and the World
Trade Organization),
multinationals, and intelligence agencies, must adjust to a new
reality: Radical religiosity.
The deeply concealed essence of this new reality is as
follows:
- In the West, usury,1
in its broadest sense, permeates all economic transactions, directly or indirectly.
For most people, usury is a modus vivendi. But for many
around the world, extreme usury is
nothing but terrorism by economic
means.
- Jewish
scriptures condemn usury against Jews, but not necessarily against
Gentiles. Christian scriptures view money as the "root of all evil."
Islam
abhors all forms of usury.2
- The world is
thus tragically decentered: Radical Islamists are waging a war on
Mammon and usury; and
America and Britain are waging a war on terrorism.
Ironically, all believe they are fighting the supreme Evil.
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For G8 leaders, the attacks on the WTC and on the Pentagon are cruel
terrorist attacks on
civilization, freedom, democracy, and peace. For radical Islamists,
they are attacks on "Great Satan" and his money temple. For them,
the enemy is Israel and a "Jewified" Christianity3 -- a
Christianity that has been corrupted by usury.
PREDATORY CREDITORS AND THE USURY ELITE
America's economic response to the attack on the WTC is to channel new
"dollar liquidity," including new debt, into the economy, and to reduce
taxes. The Fed's response is to cut short-term interest to reduce the cost
of borrowing.4 Unfortunately, these responses do nothing to relieve worldwide debts -- and the nasty consequences of
usury.
Public and private debts around the globe are currently
monstrous. The public debt of
the U.S. on September 28, 2001 was in excess of $5.8 trillion.5
The debt of U.S. domestic nonfinancial sectors in
July 2001 was in excess of $18.7 trillion!6
G8 leaders and multinational economic
institutions must be reminded of the admonition in the Tanach:
"The rich rule the poor, and the borrower is a slave of the
lender" (Proverbs 22:7). Monstrous debts imply
ipso facto monstrous economic slavery.
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Convergent predatory actions of creditors against debtors can:
- Destabilize a large
number of indebted households and corporations.7-8
- Destabilize indebted
countries.9
- Induce mass layoffs.
- Increase
substantially bankruptcy
rates. Over
the last 10 years, the U.S. suffered over 11 million consumer and
business bankruptcy filings!10
- Increase poverty and
misery.
- Trigger a global recession.
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President Eisenhower warned against the danger that "public policy
could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."11
Had he been armed with Tanachic wisdom, he
would have warned instead against the danger from the policies of the
"usury elite."
ROUSING THE ISLAMIC GIANT
The terrorists "have roused a mighty
giant," said President George W. Bush.12
He is right. But they have also roused
the
mighty Islamic giant -- more than one billion people, from Mauritania to Indonesia, and far beyond.
Should the attack on Afghanistan, be
broadened to include Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, and other Islamic or Arab
countries, the long-term consequences to civilization will be
incalculable.
Dr.
Edward E. Ayoub
1 For Plato's, Aristotle's,
and St. Thomas Aquinas's views on usury, see Plato,
Aristotle,
and St.
Thomas Aquinas, in The
Macroknow Book Club™, respectively. Toronto, ON: Macroknow, Inc., 2001.
2 For a knowledge base of
quotations comparing the positions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, on
theology, law/justice, and money/economics, see Religion,
in The
Macroknow Book Club™. Toronto, ON: Macroknow, Inc., 2001.
3 Protest against "Jewification" is neither new nor
limited to radical Islamist. In the late 1920's, Martin Heidegger, the
greatest philosopher of the 20th century, protested against "the
growing 'Jewification' (Verjudung) of German spiritual life."
See Richard Wolin, Arbeit Macht Frei: Heidegger as Philosopher of the
German "Way," 2000, p. 5, http://olincenter.uchicago.edu/pdf/wolin.pdf
(a chapter from the forthcoming Heidegger's Children: Philosophy,
National Socialism and German-Jewish Identity (Princeton, 2001)).
Original source quoted in Wolin: Ulrich
Sieg, "Die 'Verjudung des deutschen Geistes: Ein unbekannter Brief
Heideggers,'" Die Zeit 52, December 29, 1989, p.19.
4 See Federal Reserve Release, October 2, 2001, http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/general/
2001/20011002/default.htm.
5 The public debt of
the U.S. on September 28, 2001 was in excess of $5.8 trillion. See The Debt to the Penny,
Bureau
of the Public Debt Online, Washington http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm.
6 The Federal Reserve Board, Money Stock and Debt Measures,
H.6 Historical Data, Table 1 M1, M2, M3 and Debt (SA and NSA), October 4,
2001, http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H6/hist/h6hist1.txt.
7 For evidence of a meltdown in the savings of workers, see Danny
Hakim, Former Workers at Lucent See Nest Eggs Vanish, Too, The New York Times on
the Web, New York, NY, August 29, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/29/business/29LUCE.html.
8 For evidence of rising corporate defaults and credit problems, see
Gretchen Morgenson, Companies' Big Debts Now Carry Big Risks, The New York Times on
the Web, Business, New York, NY, October 7, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/business/07CASH.html.
9 For an example of a destabilized economy, see Joseph Kahn, Argentina
Gets $8 Billion Aid From the I.M.F., The New York Times on
the Web, New York, NY, August 22,
2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/22/international/americas/22ARGE.html.
10 See U.S. Bankruptcy Filing Statistics, The American
Bankruptcy Institute, Alexandria, VA, http://www.abiworld.org/stats/newstatsfront.html. Cited source: The
Administrative
Office of the U.S. Courts, Washington, DC. See also U.S. Bankruptcy
Filings 1980-2000 (Business, Non-Business, and Total) http://www.abiworld.org/stats/1980annual.html.
11 See Don K. Price, The Scientific Establishment, in Scientists
and National Policy-Making, Robert Gilpin and Christopher Wright
(eds.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1964, p. 19.
12 See Remarks by the President Upon Arrival, South Lawn,
The White House, September 16, 2001, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010916-2.html.
Posted October 9, 2001. Last Updated
October 13, 2001.
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