| Subject: | [socialcredit] Bryan W. Monahan | | Date: | Wednesday, April 18, 2007 13:55:43 (-0700) | | From: | william_b_ryan <william_b_ryan @.....com>
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The following is excerpted from Bryan W. Monahan's
1947 book, *An introduction to Social Credit*, which
was graciously sent to me by Victor Bridger. Monahan
was, I believe, the third chairman of the Social
Credit Secretariat, following Dr. Tudor Jones, who had
been deputy chairman under C. H. Douglas.
---------------------------------
It is now possible to see the practical basis of the
proper limitation of Government to its legitimate
functions.
We have already seen that the power to contract-out is
an essential aspect of genuine democracy. But, apart
from suicide, it is impossible, or nearly impossible,
to contract-out of Society. Consequently, it is
absolutely essential to protect the individual with
"_the equivalent of a Bill of Rights ultra vires of
parliament, together with a permanent professional
body, trained to attack not only an existing law, but
armed with permanent power to bring out into the open
for cross-examination at any time the originators of
any law which encroaches on these rights..._
"One of the first results of such an arrangement would
be an arrest in the flow of law-making. If the world
is regarded as a factory run by officials on would-be
mass-production lines, continuous works-orders
camouflaged as laws are inevitable, though quite
rapidly fatal. But, in a world in which it is
realised that the more action is spontaneous within
the limits of personal sovereignty the less the
friction and the higher the general satisfaction, they
are both redundant and objectionable." (C. H. Douglas:
*The Brief for the Prosecution*)
Such a Bill of Rights provides an area of personal
sovereignty into which the individual can withdraw,
and out of which he can emerge into functional
activities of his choice, in which he subordinates
himself to the necessities of functional organisation.
This is like the club member who elects to play in
some particular game.
Next, the individual must derive his income "from
outside," so to speak, and contribute money to such
organisations, including Government, as he desires to
support.
That is to say, _the Government should have no access
to the general credit of the community except through
independent citizens._ It should have no powers of
taxation except the power to collect "subscriptions"
as agreed to by citizens acting through their
Representatives in Parliament.
Again, we see that the nationalisation of banking is
exactly the wrong thing, since it gives the Government
direct access to the general credit.
Once the idea of the Government as the "Big Boss" is
cleared away, it is much easier to discern its
legitimate functions.
Perhaps the first of these functions is that of
maintaining the rights of the individual by providing
for the proper mechanisms for the administration of
Justice--again, a reversal of the present usurpation
of the functions of the Courts of Law by the
"administrative lawlessness" of the bureaucracy.
Secondly, the Government has a function as a General
Committee of Society.
And thirdly, it has a function as a Board of
Directors.
It is legitimate for the Government (Cabinet) to
propose to Parliament (the Representatives of the
Shareholders) general expenditure to enhance the
general real credit. It is the function of Parliament
to authorise or to refuse such expenditure.
It is legitimate for the Government to recommend the
rate of dividend distribution, on the basis of
properly kept accounts relating to the affairs of
Society. (For example, the plant and resources of the
community can be "valued" as capital assets, and this
gives an approximation to the real credit of the
community if the various factors are properly taken
into account. This figure can be given a "capital"
value in monetary terms, and a "rate of dividend," for
example, 5% or 10%, declared. This provides a general
income, to be allocated as between general individual
dividends to citizens, wages and salaries, and
subsidies to adjust prices to the physical facts. The
money required for government purposes must be
contributed out of the _distributed_ money in the way
as the funds of a club are derived from the
subscriptions of its members.)
To give effect to these general relationships, there
needs to be a credit-issuing organisation with a
constitutional status equivalent to that of, say, the
Auditor-General. To this organisation would fall the
keeping of the national accounts, and the computation
of the price factor; and it might quite suitably be
the organisation through which the national dividend
was distributed, the price-subsidy adjusted, and the
financing of production initiated.
In principle, and potentially, most of the
organisations necessary to implement genuine democracy
exist, and there is no difficulty in adapting these
organisations to their proper functions.
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Bryan W. Monahan
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