AMERICA'S
OPPORTUNITY (from Chapter
IV of Private Enterprise Money by E.C. Riegel)
Today,
I had the opportunity to share this passage from the end of chapter
four in Riegel's Private
Enterprise Money with someone who is committed to the vision this
proposal represents. In celebration and as a reminder concerning
what this proposal is about, I decided to repost this passage here
now:
America
gave to the world the greatest political document ever conceived by
man. America now has the opportunity and the challenge to give to
mankind - through a universal, non-political money system - the
greatest of all charters of freedom. That charter will liberate
society's vast wealth producing forces, unify the peoples of the
world on the economic plane, preserve and effectuate democracy –
and banish war and poverty from the earth. Such a charter can be
written only in terms of money freedom.
All
the issues of the great war in which the nations are now engaged, all
the problems of postwar planning, all the hopes of humanity for a
better world, resolve themselves into but one question: can man in
this crisis master money? Our whole thinking on this subject must be
revised. The obvious lack of a science of money, after centuries of
experience with it, should suggest to everyone that there is involved
in past thinking and practice, a basic error. One may go to the
parliaments, to the academies, to the counting houses, to the market
places, in search of an understanding of money and it cannot be
found. Instead of mastery, we find mystery.
No
one need feel any inferiority in confessing lack of comprehension of
this subject, for ignorance is universal except among those who dare
to challenge the orthodox concepts. There is not lack of sufficient
intelligence to master the problem; it requires only the courage to
break with the old concepts and open the mind to new. If we have not
this courage in this grave crisis, we are lost. If we cling to old
ideas while men are sacrificing their lives, the dead shall have died
in vain. The blood of the dead cannot requite the brains of the
living.
Money
freedom is a new cause in human progress. It has as yet no clarion.
Ours is but a thin small voice in a world clanging with steel. But
all the greater is our responsibility. We are custodians of an idea -
and ideas are more powerful, more enduring than steel. The
inscrutable wisdom that inspires men to undertake new causes, often,
and in fact usually, commits to humble and obscure persons the task,
the honor and the privilege to nurture the struggling cause, and, by
so doing, not only serve humanity but become lifted out of their
obscurity.
Let
each of us assume leadership in the circle of our contacts no matter
how limited, with the devout purpose of bringing to our fellows a new
gage of freedom, a new inspiration and a new hope of a better day.
And this day and every day can be bettered by devoting the mind to a
constructive cause, rather than leaving it prey to the depressing
thoughts of war and destruction.
Let
us not ask despairingly, "what is this world coming to?"
Rather, let us assert confidently, "this is what the world is
coming to and I am part of the great constructive power that moves
it." If we here and now resolve to grasp the opportunity that
fate has brought to us, we shall have recollections of this day that
will pay dividends of satisfaction and pride as long as memory lasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment