Lenders, Leopards, and Lions: The Violence of Avarice - Muslim Musings from Dante's Six, Seventh

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Event Name: Lenders, Leopards, and Lions: The Violence of Avarice - Muslim Musings from Dante's Six, Seventh
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 4/27/2019
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in the heretics which is where

the false prophets were he is not I'm

sorry not in in the he's in the the

false prophets are in the they're in the

eighth circle I think they're in the

first bowl gia he does not put them with

the false prophets he puts him

with the schismatic so now the

schismatic SAR the Eastern Churches and

this is in essence acknowledging that

these are believers but they saw schism

was actually because it created violence

and rupture in society it's also not a

disease of fraud and this is pointed out

by the commentators in Dante that he

puts him here because the the the fraud

is in their own misperception of the

world this is this is how he does it and

I also want to say that these people

that he puts here are not the people and

that's why people say oh he put his

enemies in hell and he was just cruel

and just know these are personifications

he is personifying the idea of schism

and that was something very close to a

deeply divided world between christians

and muslims who were fighting then as

unfortunately we are now so but then he

puts the falsifiers

alright now what's interesting to me

he's got the counterfeiters and the

alchemist and and and and the people

that the coin i want to look at this was

110 years ago when the earl lectures

were founded look at what the dollar the

purchasing power of the dollar was

alright because what you could buy you

see is it has diminished to the point so

for instance my grandfather who sold

bubblegum as a ten year old boy in in

San Francisco down on Market Street in

1906 he used to sell it I think for a

penny little packages of bubble gum so

all you have to do is look at how much

that package cost today and in those

days it was organic right so so you'd

even have to like double the price to

get the organic bubble gum but just look

at the purchasing power of the dollar

that has been declining and then our

debt 56 trillion and this is it's

actually higher than this now but this

is the current liabilities and unfounded

promises okay we only have about 15

trillion dollar

in circulation and this is what we owe

in liabilities Social Security met a cow

all these things okay I mean this is a

real crises so our current national

debts at about 12 trillion right and our

budget was close to two trillion so now

most of this again we're going a large

portion is going to defense and another

portion is going to interest on the

national debt now this is old wine in a

new bottle so because in the old days

you had gangsters and the thing about

gangsters is that they would just go in

and usually have like they would cover

and they'd go in and rob the bank now

they get on the boards it's much more

clever series and this is not

exaggeration there's a book called the

best way to rob a bank is to own one

and this is what these people have been

doing and it's really quite stunning now

I just look at this statement Wall

Street with its vast banks in New York

City and associated banks and all other

large cities suggested that there was a

prospect of most disastrous panic that

the world and and that had known unless

Congress gave them emergency currency

neither could these great swivel-chair

operators of Wall Street exploit the

commerce that would follow between the

war nations and our country has a great

profiteering game unless Uncle Sam came

to their aid and financially that is

would give them more currency okay

instead of aiding the people as the

Congress as the government should have

done Congress immediately passed and

emergency currency Act to Furness the

banks that the speculators controlled

all the money they should need till they

could operate the Federal Reserve Act

the speculators received from Uncle Sam

nearly four hundred million dollars okay

that would be about four hundred billion

today under the provisions of the

emergency currency act and when the

Federal Reserve Act really got to

operating they had nearly four hundred

million at one time under that act and

they could get as much more as they

wanted

that's congressman Charles Lindbergh

senior who was this the father of

Charles Lindbergh who flew across the

Atlantic he was a congressman that was

opposed to the Federal Reserve but my

point is is that it's the same game too

big to fail this is how it's all fear

and this is one of the things that the

the the panders and the seducers they

use fear and desire to trick people and

and and to get what they want now it is

an old maxim and a very sound one that

that he who dances should always pay the

fiddler now sir in the present case of

any gentleman whose money is a burden to

them choose to lead off a dance I am

decidedly opposed to the people's money

being used to pay the fiddler no one can

doubt that the examination proposed by

this resolution must cost the state some

ten or twelve thousand dollars a lot of

money in 1837 and all this to settle a

question in which the people have no

interest in about which they care

nothing these capitalists generally act

harmoniously and in concert to fleece

the people and now that they have got

into a quarrel with themselves we are

called upon to appropriate the people's

money to settle the quarrel because they

wanted money over a stock collapse that

happened and this is an old game now I

want to talk about America's great fairy

tale you see every culture has to have

some really profound fairy tale and and

ours is the Wizard of Oz now The Wizard

of Oz about the time the Earl lectures

were being initiated there was a

character named William Jennings Bryan

in fact a hundred and ten years ago he

would have just found out that he lost

the 1900 election for president he ran

on the anti-imperialism platform he was

an he was a pacifist they called him a

coward they considered him a coward he

was a pacifist

he was also pro farming and and our

farmers people have no idea how much our

farmers have suffered in this country

really the suicide rate is the highest

amongst farmers I mean these are people

tied to the land and when the lands

taken away from them and and they're

forced into this agribusiness Gresham's

dynamic which is that the cheaters drive

out the honest people now I just want to

look at this fairy tale because bomb was

was basically given us an allegory at

this time when he was writing this the

great debate in the United States was

over finance reform and

this Dorothea represents um the American

the good American from Kansas good

Midwest state she's on a farm and BOM

describes her her you know her aunt and

her uncle never smile it's a barren farm

because it's drought and then basically

she meets she goes to this land she

lands on the Wicked Witch of the East

Wall Street and she and and the

munchkins the little factory workers are

freed and they're really happy and then

the Good Witch of the North which is

where all the support for the populace

were come down and she gives her the

silver slippers which turned into ruby

slippers in the film but in the book

they're silver slippers and then she's

told to go to Oz because she wants to

get back to Kansas follow the yellow

brick road they were on the gold

standard in 1873 this country removed

the silver standard and they demonetised

silver which created an incredible

burden on farmers because gold was rich

people's money silver was poor people's

money and it was made illegal for people

to use and that's Bryan's famous the

cross of gold don't crucify us on a

cross of gold so the yellow brick road

leads that emerald forests the green

backs because the currency was tied to

the gold and and in the book they all

wear emerald glasses that have a string

connected to a gold belt and the

Scarecrow represents the kind of simple

farmers that were intelligent but not

educated and they needed a brain with

the thoughts I III could be thinking I'd

be another Lincoln if I only had a brain

and then the Tin Man is the industrial

factory workers who are dehumanized

by industry and and this is why the Tin

Man in the book says that he used to be

a real human being that was cutting the

wood but he would cut himself and and

the the tin makers would put him back

together until he became completely tin

but now he's lost his heart because this

is the alienation the dehumanization

that happens in factory workers and then

the Cowardly Lion is William Jennings

Bryant who was called a coward and and

needed the courage and the

power to do this they wanted to restore

bimetallism this was Hamilton's original

vision of this country to have a

bi-metal economy under a gold standard

the amount of credit the and by the way

at the end when she kills the Wicked

Witch of the the West which is where all

the farmers were being held it's the

yellow Wilkie's who are the the the

Chinese workers on the the railroad and

the winget monkeys who were the Native

Americans he was actually quite racist

towards Native Americans but they talked

about how we used to live on the land

and in the forest until these evil

people came and took us over and but how

does she kill the Wicked Witch liquidity

because because that's what they needed

they needed a cash infusion and and she

kind of dissolves into thin air right

what does she say

now I want you to really think about

this I'm coming to a close I know that

because I have to come to an end here

under a gold standard the amount of

credit that an economy can support is

determined by the economy's tangible

assets since every credit instrument is

ultimately a claim on some tangible

asset but government bonds are not

backed by tangible wealth only by the

government's promise to pay out of

future tax revenues and cannot easily be

absorbed by financial markets a large

volume of new government bonds can be

sold to the public only at progressively

higher interest rates thus government

deficient spending deficits spending

under a gold standard is severely

limited the abandonment of the gold

standard made it possible for the

welfare status to use the banking system

as a means to unlimited credit they have

created paper reserves in the form of

government bonds which through a complex

series of steps the banks accept in

place of tangible assets and treat as if

they were an actual deposit this is just

on a ledger in the in the Federal

Reserve as the equivalent of what was

formerly gold the holder of a government

bond or of a bank deposit created by

paper tzer's believes that he has a

valid claim on a real asset the law of

supply and demand is not to be conned as

the supply of money of claims increases

relative to the supply of tangible

assets in the economy prices must

eventually rise thus the earnings saved

by the productive members of society

lose value in terms of goods so if

you're saving money you're losing money

in this system when the economy's books

are finally balanced one finds that this

loss in value represents the goods

purchased by the government for welfare

or other purposes

really it's all defense spending but the

money proceeds and interests of the

government bonds financed by bank credit

expansion in the absence of the gold

standard there is no way to protect

savings from confiscation through

inflation there's no safe store of value

if there were the government would have

to make it illegal as it was done in the

case of gold back in the 30s if everyone

decided for example to convert all his

bank deposits to silver or copper right

they'd lose their purchasing power so

the financial policy of the welfare

state requires that there be no way for

the owners of wealth to protect

themselves this is the shabby secret of

the welfare state as tirades against

gold deficit spending is a simply a

scheme for the confiscation of wealth

gold standards stand in the way of the

insidious process it stands as a

protector of property

if one grasp this one has no difficulty

in understanding the status antagonism

towards the gold standard that was Alan

Greenspan okay

that's true statement alan greenspan a

man who is furnished with arguments from

the mint will convince his antagonists

much sooner than any than one who draws

them from reason and philosophy gold is

a wonderful clearer of understanding it

dissipates every doubt and scruple in an

instant accommodates itself to the

meanest of capacities silences the loud

and clamors and brings over the most

obstinate and inflexible philip of

macedon was a man of most invincible

reason this way he refuted by it all the

wisdom of athens confounded their

Statesman's struck their orders dumb and

at length argued them out of all their

liberties that was addison again when

the freedom they wish for most was the

freedom from responsibility then Athens

ceased to be free and never was free

again that's one of our greatest

scholars on on the Greco tradition I'd

like to end with a poem by Robert Frost

because in the end for me the real two

sources of truth in this world are

revelation and poets and in the Islamic

tradition you can't separate the two

it's a prerequisite to comment on the

poor on that you have to master the

pre-islamic poets literally that is

agreed upon in Islamic tradition what

what poetry enables us the poets

penetrate and the poets are inspired and

and Dante was an inspired poet we can

look at the kind of there are many

things that we would object to but

ultimately Dante's vision is a vision of

every man and every woman's journey back

to God and in the end when Dante has the

beatific vision and and he sees it he's

he says and already my desire and my

will were made one turning by a wheel

yet at one speed the desire and the will

become one there's no more tension

between one's impulses and one's moral

rectitude and then he says

turned by the love that moved the

planets and the stars that love of God

Robert Frost wrote two poems about

economics and one of them he never

published it's called not it's called on

the inflation of the currency 1919 which

was when Wilson inflated the incurrence

he printed up a lot of money in order to

in order to pay for the war debts and he

said the pain of seeing 10 cents turned

to five we clutch with both hands

fiercely at the part we think we feel it

in the head the heart is someone cutting

us in two alive is somewhat at us

cutting us in half we cast a dangerous

look from where we lie up to the

enthroned it kings of earth and sky

they know what's best for them - well -

laughs that's about the bankers they've

convinced people that we need them

there are necessity they confiscate

wealth this misappropriation of wealth

is beyond belief in human history the

amount of money that's been taken out of

your homes people in this room the 401ks

that were destroyed and then he has

another poem and this is a warning to

America he says these words were cut in

stone for permanent these words so these

words I assume were so deeply met meant

they cut themselves in stone for

permanent like trouble in the brow above

the eyes and here's what's chiseled in

stone take care to sell your horse

before he dies the art of life is

passing losses on the city saying it was

Tessa Fong which may a little while by

war and trade have kept had have kept

from being caught with the decayed

infirm worn out and broken on its hands

but judging by what little of it stands

not even the ingenuities of debt could

save it from its law

is being met sand is thrusting in the

square of door across the tessellation

on the floor and only rests a serpent on

its chin content with contemplating

taking in until it can muster breath

inside a Hall inside a hall to rear

against the inscription on the wall

we're this country's money is being

destroyed really it's being destroyed

before our eyes and it's being destroyed

because of debt and debt is something

that is incredibly overwhelming for

people poor people have suffered the

most in this crises and until we take

the responsibility of understanding at a

deeper level the economics of the system

how it works we can't change anything it

was attempted William Jennings Bryan

attempted to do it a hundred and ten

years ago and there's a lot of people

now talking about this now whether we're

able to do it or not I don't know but

this system which is a global system now

and Ussery if you if you study how usery

works more interest on usury is going

out of the third-world countries than

aid going in this is just it's it's a

disgusting game and and it really should

end but whether we can end it or not is

is to be seen thank you very much

[Applause]

okay will now take questions from the

audience just just raise your hand if

you like ask the question thank you you

have continued a PSR tradition of

expanding our minds a lot of us own

homes I own a home isn't it fair for

there to be some interest charged on a

loan you know that's an argument that

was Calvin's argument Calvin

John Calvin was the French he was

originally Roman Catholic and then he

gets in trouble in the Inquisition moves

to Switzerland

the bankers actually erected a statue

for him because he's the first one that

legalizes usury in in in Christianity

but he did it by the idea of interest

and interest was originally a between

time if you delayed payment even by

church doctrine you could be charged in

the same way that they charge on credit

cards today if you're delayed that was a

reasoning what interest meant but what

Calvin did is he distinguished between

interest and usury and saw usury as

unjust or exorbitant at that time

anything higher than 12% would have been

considered usury Justinian the roman

emperor considered it 6% anything over

6% most people don't realize that a lot

of people in these pay day things are

paying sometimes 50% interest what the

bankers did is that they studied all of

the states and their interest laws and

they found out that Delaware and North

Dakota did not have interest law caps

and so they they put their operation

city cores in North Dakota not in New

York because there's usury laws in New

York huh

South Dakota sorry yeah South Dakota now

what's interesting is that

in smiley versus Citicorp smiley it's a

case that went to the Supreme Court

because they kept changing the rates on

on his his thing and so he actually

tried to see if he could put an end to

it and and the Supreme Court ruled

against smiley for Citicorp which ended

caps on these they used to charge five

dollars for a late fee now their shows

like $35 $40 the poorer you are the more

they charge even John Calvin who

accepted interest did not accept it for

poor people and what you have to

understand is the people that suffer

most are the poor people because they

get the worst rates and this is usury

you see most of you are probably in the

700s in your FICO score which is what

Fair Isaac that's the company that

determines it great Fair Isaac now one

of the things they don't tell you is

that anytime you miss a payment the

reason it suddenly drops is because they

want to raise your interest rates the

system's rigged against you but one of

the things that they have special files

for celebrities judges wealthy people

they don't do it to them because they

don't want these people to get angry and

make advocates the number one complaints

given to the Fair Business Bureau in the

United States is again is against credit

cards number one complaint people are

suffering out there most people don't

understand compound interest they don't

understand how if you pay the minimum

payment if we paid them the national

debt if we started paying it one dollar

a day it would take two hundred eighty

eight thousand years to finally pay it

off and in reality you could never pay

it off because of the nature of interest

so the point here is is you know

obviously companies have to make money

and things like that

renting money is in in the Islamic

tradition it's absolutely forbidden but

usury has always been even in the Muslim

world there's never been a society that

has been completely freed of interest

but there should be at least just rates

just rates and the people that suffer

most again are the poor people and and

we we should

advocates for these people because these

payday loans and people think these are

pawn brokers and schemers most of these

inner-city payday loans are owned by

Wells Fargo Bank of America seriously

it's just like it's it's like Disney you

know Disney has touchstone for their

racy films because they didn't want to

taint the name of Disney this is a very

sophisticated system and what you have

to realize is it's not that you know

they're all evil and is us and them this

is people that are afflicted with states

of being that are very unhealthy they're

not well and and part of what what what

you know just laws are to regulate

people from their own bad nature