| Subject: | [socialcredit] William Krehm | | Date: | Monday, July 3, 2006 14:51:26 (-0700) | | From: | William B. Ryan <w_b_ryan @.....com>
|
William Krehm is the founder of COMER, who must now be
in his nineties, I think. I marvel that there are
people still with us at such an advanced age, not only
who remain sentient, but striving to contribute to the
compendium of knowledge - as William Krehm undoubtedly
is! It speaks well of the continuing human spirit
that transcends generations, in empathy for those now
living and those who will come later.
I am however rankled somewhat by the brief reference
to Henry George in the text appended below. I've
grown very disdainful of George and the "Georgists"
these last couple of years, as I've learned more about
them, some of the reasons for which I've expressed in
several postings.
And, in particular, I regard the allusion to the
"evil" - Krehm of course doesn't use that word in his
text - of "interest" or "usury" being the "motivation"
and/or "moral justification" for our enemies in the
war on terror--as if it is we, the beneficiaries of
"interest" and "usury" or more inclusively the
"institutions" of Western Civilization, such as
functioning fire and police departments and everything
else that comprises our standard of living - free
public schools, libraries, parks and the like - safe
drinking water and sewer systems - variety of
entertainment and food at the market in abundance, the
freedom of speech, thought and action, and on and on -
which are the "evil" against which they are
"understandably" "provoked" into reacting--as being
clearly an absurd and ridiculous position. I don't
know any better or more polite way to put it. I
simply don't. And I say this having the utmost
respect for Mr. Krehm. I acknowledge that most of the
terms within quotation marks in this criticism of mine
are not his. I do however believe they are reasonably
inferable from the concluding words to the second to
last paragraph of the text below, so I direct your
attention to them.
I witnessed some of the events of September 11 on live
television, together with my son, including the
collapse of both towers.
I drive my son Joseph to school in the morning so he
actually gets to school (I frequently didn't at his
age). I trust him to ride the bus home. Just before
the time to leave he called me to his room. On the
screen was the first of the twin towers in flames--I
immediately assumed it was some horrific accident. I
knew that during WWII an Air Force bomber had crashed
into one of the upper stories of the Empire State
Building, then the tallest in the world, killing its
crew and several persons in the building. It was
fortunately on a Sunday, I think, when the building
was mostly vacant.
At that very moment we witnessed an airliner--which we
learned later, was filled with kidnapped
passengers--fly into the second tower. It was obvious
to me that the nation was then under attack. It was
in fact a Pearl Harbor like attack that had commenced
several hours earlier on several fronts. I remembered
that Joseph had informed me the evening before that
for some reason the Internet was not working
properly--several sites that he routinely visited were
totally inaccessible, while others could be reached
sluggishly. I suspected and later confirmed that there
had been a coordinated and sophisticated "denial of
service" attack from overseas with the intent to
cripple the nation's communications system.
There is something about perverse ideology (or mere
patterns of thinking) that will seize the human mind
that is analogous to the idea that demonic spirits can
take control of the mortal human body, I truly
believe. It is something we simply have to deal with.
There's no reasoning with it. And there's no need to
invoke the paranormal or supernatural in the
discussion whatsoever, if that's not to your taste;
all that is required is to recognize that there is an
element of destructive irrationality in the isolated
or organized behavior of some deviant personalities,
which we may never be able to explain or understand.
And something that we may all be susceptible to, in
greater or lesser degree. So we must heed the warning
signs within ourselves to prevent it from intruding
into our lives.
Intellectual discussion with such ideologically
imprisoned people is pissing in the wind, about
"interest" or "usury" or whatever the ostensible
subject matter might be, for this phenomenon of
irrationality is quite beyond reason and
comprehension--or persuasion.
We can only deal with it the best we can when it
confronts us, and we have the obligation to deal with
it appropriately, which I think the Bush
administration in good faith is trying to accomplish.
That's why I stand with him steadfastly on this,
despite the fact that through several elections I
supported his opponents in Texas gubernatorial
politics and first presidential campaign. Indeed,
before his re-election, I never once voted Republican.
I come from several generations of committed
Democrats. Once this war is over or our president is
out of office, I may never vote Republican again.
There are certain issues for me that are overriding,
and this is one of them.
I do not hesitate to ascribe the word "evil" to our
enemies in this war, though the term is not now
"politically correct" in such contexts. For I truly
believe that their intent is evil, if only from the
perspective of sanity.
Their choice of the date to launch their attack on the
World Trade Center, the eleventh day of the ninth
month, 9-1-1, is proof positive for me of cunningly
evil intent, in demonstrating to the world their utter
contempt for us and our way of life. It is for them a
symbol for America and what she stands for. For that
number is the number that Americans are taught to dial
when they need help. And help did come in the part of
several hundred firemen and policemen, who were
climbing up the stairs of both towers to bring hope if
not aid to those unfortunate persons stranded above,
who wanted to come down. Still, in the minutes after
the first tower collapsed, the firemen and policemen
continued to ascend the second, which was not yet
fully evacuated! All of them - several hundred
firemen and policemen together with those stranded
above - some thirty-five hundred in all - perished
almost instantly when the towers in turn collapsed
into their basements.
Yet, in magnificent buildings that would normally have
had 50,000 men and women going about their daily
occupations, most were saved. Such was the valor and
accomplishment of those servants of the public who
sacrificed their lives in saving them. Such was their
empathy for us, not only for those of us who will come
later, but for those still alive, who were otherwise
consumed by fear and panic on that day.
It was and is an assault on the American way of life,
and the concept of freedom for all peoples everywhere.
The counter-attack from us, too, is proceeding on
several fronts, as is our duty. And in this war, we,
also, have our symbolism in the message we send to the
world and our posterity.
The new Freedom Tower skyscraper at the World Trade
Center will rise to 1776 feet exactly, representing
the year of our Independence.
The shuttle Discovery with her brave crew will
probably launch tomorrow, July 4, representing the day
of our Independence, weather permitting. I'm certain
that symbolism had something to do with the previously
announced skipping of today's launch "window."
Of course, the name Discovery is symbolic, whenever
launched, for the totality of the human race--past,
present, and future.
And we shall forever answer Francis Scott Key in the
affirmative, who in his anthem continues to ask, "O
say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the
land of the free and the home of the brave?"
I do sincerely thank William Krehm for his
contribution to our discussions.
-
"In August 1814, Key's friend Dr. William Beanes was
taken prisoner by the British army soon after its
departure from Washington. Key left for Baltimore to
obtain the services of Colonel John Skinner, the
government's prisoner of war exchange agent. Together
they sailed down the bay on a truce ship and met the
British fleet. Key successfully negotiated the
doctor's release, but was detained with Skinner and
Beanes by the British until after the attack on
Baltimore.
"Key's vessel...was 8 miles below the fort during the
bombardment, under the watchful care of a British
warship. It was from this site that he witnessed the
British attack on Fort McHenry, after which he was
inspired to write the words to 'The Star-Spangled
Banner.'"
http://www.bcpl.net/~etowner/anthem.html
-------------------------------
From: "William Krehm" <comerpub@rogers.com>
To: "Keith Wilde" <keithwilde@sympatico.ca>
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: [socialcredit] statistics
Dear Keith:
I found your discussion on the role of Douglas and
Social Credit very useful and interesting. With your
permission I will barge in not only to clarify my view
on Douglas but on just about every social reformer and
why we should listen to them as citizens of their own
ages who may have learned something that might be
helpful today. What is certain not to be is a
completely thought out and tidily packaged program
that will handle the nightmare of problems in our own
age. Sticking to Douglas before rounding off the
point with brief reference to others let me sum up my
view of the really great contributions of Douglas for
our day:
The first remarkable thing is that though writing
shortly after world War I, Douglas - undoubtedly due
to the influence of the Guild Socialists and A. R.
Orage were able to step outside the enchantment of the
technological revolution of his age which the great
Karl Marx, and Lenin were unable to do. It is the
curse of technical progress that society's greatest
thinkers tend to end up with a view of social problems
that mimics the technology revolution of their day.
Who can overlook the railway-building age in the
orderly Marxist view of human development as an
orderly procession of social structures (barring a
derailment - i.e. a counter-revolution - primitive
Communism, feudalism, industrial capitalism,
development.) Right to the grand terminal of
socialism, or in the case of the Bolshevik's Communism
- where every cook becomes a statesman and there are
no professional statesmen any more. And from that
formulation of Lenin emerged the nightmare of Stalin
and the Moscow trials.
The technology of the internet is certainly being
reflected in our handling of globalization and
deregulation that is not only ruinously overloading
every form of transport, and just about every sort of
pollution, but providing a disastrous clash of
cultures while the elementary exchange of ideas is
undermined and suppressed.
In that setting marvel at the foresight of the
Douglas-Orage collaboration immediately after World
War I crystalized in Douglas's summation: "Must we
build a machine gun in order to buy a cabbage?" At
the time Lenin was codifying: "Communism = Socialism
plus Electrification." It was as simple of that.
Progress was in fact if not in theory measured by the
amount of metallurgy established and pollution of the
atmosphere.
That is the first immense contribution of Douglas:
the desirability and indeed the necessity of alternate
life styles. A stepping stone in that direction is the
notion of the social heritage that recognizes the
contribution of previous generations of martyrs,
philosophers, slaves, prophets, scientists, inventors
in whatever is patented or even produced without
patent. That common heritage is important in order to
balance our social accounts with those between society
and the environment and amongst diverse human cultures
many others are seeking - the generalisations of
Henry George by J. W. Smith to squeeze the layers of
rent not only out of ground ownership but from every
aspect of the economy, is another example that should
be considered.
Implicit in the Douglas doctrine - to the point of his
devising his A&B Theorem that it took me decades to
grasp the essence of. For years, my reaction what the
man is talking about is accrual accountancy that makes
a distinction between capital investment and simple
spending. But it dawned on me - with the help of
others rather late in the day - was that he was really
concerned about was financing of capital investments
that stretched beyond the cycle of production of a
single round of the capital goods being produced, and
financing of that had to be brought under control to
prevent finance capital that builds its empire on the
bones of democracy. Douglas's conclusion was that
financing had to be arranged that would be
subordinated to industrial democracy. That of course,
formulated in 1919, is not a ready program solving all
our needs, but it provided key elements of a vision
that could open our eyes for the search of solutions.
The idea of alternate life styles - not viewed as
petty-bourgeois as Marxists of the day would tend to,
or even as lumpen proletarian.
The conclusion is not that any particular prophet did
all the work, the preaching in the wilderness, for us,
but should be listened to in case he has something -
not a perfect program but one that will help turn
around society in its present rush to major disaster.
One that respects and restores our ties to nature,
society, and alternate cultures. Note how the Bushies
are prepared to blow up the planet to put the
terrorists real and presumed in their place, but have
never picked up the responsibility for the current
bloody mess between Islam and the West having
something to do with the provocation of a system that
would liberate the world with one blunt economic tool
- interest rates high enough to do the job. To Islam,
of course, the wages of plain interest let alone usury
- when recurred in - is eternal Hell Fire.
In this context you can see why we prize your
historical reviews of never known or suppressed
thinkers. I trust you are feeling better and will
keep them flowing
With best regards,
Bill Krehm
-------------------------------
Keith Wilde wrote:
Bill's comments below seem unexceptionable to me.
They nevertheless leave unanswered my persisting
question about the role, and especially the
/provision/ of the National Credit Authority as a
necessarily government function (a kind of natural
monopoly as Bill has already suggested). I often get
the impression that the Douglas philosophy entails the
/elimination/ of government, but when it comes down to
issues of implementation there is clearly no escaping
the necessity of /some/ government functions. The
question then is just which functions should disappear
in a Social Credit perspective on ideal social
organization? Which ones would just naturally wither
away if the Social Credit monetary-financial reforms
were implemented, or could they be implemented at all
without a very substantial hacking up and revamping of
existing governance mechanisms?
Keith
----- Original Message -----
From: "William B. Ryan" <w_b_ryan@yahoo.com
To: <socialcredit@elistas.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 11:37 AM
Subject: [socialcredit] statistics
Joe asks: "If this is so, then some of the concerns
often expressed about 'exactness', and 'the size of
the bureaucracy' and 'the volume of statistics' that
might be necessary to try to obtain it, would be
rather moot, wouldn't they?"
-----------------------------------------------------
Well, it goes to the fact that statistics are not
absolute measurements of anything. Certain statistics
are chosen as triggers for policy implementation.
Take the case of the Phillips Curve which is utilized
for determining financial policy by the central banks.
Couple that with the theory that the economy is at
best in a state of quite unstable equilibrium. You
then have the justification for keeping the economy in
a condition of permanent underperformance, from our
perspective. Which requires very precise statistics
and continuous "fine tuning," lest it spiral "out of
control."
We have the abomination of NAIRU - the "non-
accelerating inflation rate of unemployment." But
from their perspective it is not an abomination, for
they actually believe in the theory. You know that I
maintain that most things we don't agree with are
caused by incompetence, not conspiracy. And
conspiracy is merely the pejorative for group activity
we don't like.
Interest rates are being engineered upward,
"seventeen" rate increases in the past two years, we
have been informed. Because the statistics indicated
that "inflation" was inching upward, and increasing
rates would "cool" the economy, which most certainly
it is doing. The statistics definitely show that the
rate of bankruptcy is increasing, and "employment" is
falling, exactly what they and we expected.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
|
William Krehm
Reply to this message