Power

Historians tell us that, during the bitter strife- between the states of Carthage and Rome, a Carthaginian, admiral said: "The Romans cannot even wash their hands in the Mediterranean without our sanction." If we let our minds range ever so briefly over the story of the past life of humanity, we are made aware of the everlasting struggle for power to rule the lives of others. The weapons used to cut men down may change, yet the spiritual battle has unchanging features. At the very roots of the struggle there lies the primary need for all of us of food, clothing and shelter. Whatever may be thought of slavery in ancient times, slavery in our technological cultures is a blasphemous abomination. In ancient times slavery may have been maintained by the sword, today slavery in the spiritual sense is maintained by boycott, unconscious lying and deliberate lying. Still the age-old roots remain, our primary need for bed, board, and clothes. One of the finest contributions to human thought in our times was made by Major Douglas, through his discovery of the technical method which could enable mankind, through contracting out mechanisms, to escape the constant menace of tyrannical power. In the final analysis, any decisions we make on power depends on our spiritual attitudes to human existence, and which we believe to be the final authority.

Fred SUNDERLAND in Credit Notes, January, 1960