Afterword
It will come as a strange thought to most people that they live in a society in which our respected leadership, our important figures of authority, our higher experts, are frauds who make use of their positions to exploit the very people who believe in them.
But it should not. Most human societies throughout history have been based on similar false authorities and pseudo-experts. The peasant of the Middle Ages looked up to and respected the priest, who told him it was God’s will that he submit to injustice and tyranny. The Indian Medicine Man was regarded with awe by the tribesmen. It did not matter that his complicated rain dances did not bring rain.
For the reader who asks, What can I do? How can I oppose this evil?
the answer is as follows: The aristocracy is a small group; together with all the interest groups which benefit from its policies it constitutes less than 5% of the population. 5% of the people cannot oppress the other 95% by force; they must do so by deception. When the majority understand the nature of the evil which is exploiting them, they will easily throw it off through the political process.
This is the key-understanding. It was to prevent such understanding from reaching the people that the medieval aristocracy surpressed freedom of speech. It is for the same reason that Communist — and Fascist rulers suppress it today. But theirs are more blatant tyrannies. Our newly emerging American aristocracy has not yet won such power.
What can I do to defeat the aristocracy?
The answer is: Spread the understanding of the nature of our paper money system. It was for this purpose that this book was written. Spread the ideas presented here. Talk to your friends and neighbors about them. Explain them to your fellow workers. Urge them to read this book.
Most people are afraid of economics. The priests of the new aristocracy have spent most of their time complicating the subject so that it is incomprehensible to the average person. Like the formulae of the African Witch Doctor, most economics today composed of meaningless gibberish, the only purpose of which to impress the layman who feels that because he cannot understand it, it must be very important.
But true economics is understandable and in accord with common sense. There is nothing, in it which is beyond the average person. If this understanding can be brought to the majority of people, then the aristocracy will be destroyed, and we will again live in a free society. If it is not, then the currency depreciation and its chain of attendant evils will gradually envelop the world, and the predictions of Chapter I will become reality.