The European Commission, in its Support for the ECB, has broken the
“Social Contract” and therefore has lost the moral right to rule.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“The Social Contract”
“My purpose is to consider if, in political society, there can be any legitimate and sure principle of government, taking men as they were and laws as they might be. In this inquiry I shall try always to bring together what right permits with what interest prescribes so that justice and utility are in no way divided.
I start without seeking to prove the importance of my subject. I may ask whether I am a prince or a legislator that I should be writing about politics. I answer no: and indeed that that is my reason for doing so. If I were a prince or a legislator I should not waste my time saying what ought to be done; I should do it or keep silent.
Born as I was the citizen of a free state and a member of its sovereign body, the very right to vote imposes on me the duty to instruct myself in public affairs, however little influence my voice may have in them. And whenever I reflect upon governments, I am happy to find that my studies always give me fresh reasons for admiring that of my country……
Man was born free, and is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they think. How did this transformation come about? I do not know. How can it be made Legitimate? That question I believe I can answer.
If I were to consider only force and the effects of force, I should say: “So long as a people is constrained to obey, and obeys, it does well; but as soon as it can shake off the yoke, and shakes it off, it does better; for since it regains its freedom by the same right as that which removed it, a people is either justified in taking back its freedom, or there is no justifying those who took it away.” But the social order is a sacred right which serves as a basis for all other rights. And it is not a natural right, it must be found on covenants.”
“The Social Contract” quoted above was written in 1762. It is probably one of the most important books ever written. The precepts contained therein completely altered the mind of humanity and out of its pages was born the concept of social democracy which led to the French Revolution (1789-1799) and inspired a group of American settlers to conceive a document called the Declaration of Independence (1776).
The essence of the social contract is MORAL social order. Thus when a government can no longer hold such order it loses its right to govern.
This situation has been reached today in Europe (December 2011). Why is this so? Basically, as shown with Greece, the European Commission is quite content to see a society crumble in order to save prime banking elites represented by the ECB. The failure to regulate these elites was a failure of European government, not the Greek people. Yet the lives of these nationals are being destroyed by unelected banking boards in the name of “economic orthodoxy”.
The chaos in Greece will spread to Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy as “austerity measures” dictated by the ECB, take hold. Let us be under no illusion the ECB knows exactly what it is doing. The European Commission knows exactly what the ECB is doing. Yet the members of both of these institutions are content to stand by and see societies crumble as long as their own privileges and those of their backers remain intact.
The council of Ministers should immediately form a legal commission to investigate the corruption and incompetence of this very same ECB. Questions need to be answered:
1. Why did the ECB allow national central banks in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy grant such large levels of credit for property development yet it did not allow such practice in Germany and France?
2. Why is the European Stability Mechanism an independent special purpose vehicle?
3. Why has the ECB been allowed grow it liabilities to 3.5 trillion Euro with a capital base of 5.7 billion Euro, a lending ratio of 614 to 1.
4. Who agreed the policy whereby the ECB supports bondholders to the detriment of European citizens?
History will show that the ECB is directly to blame for the credit crisis in the “PIIGS” yet its modus operandi has not been altered one iota since 2007 even though its incompetence is obvious to all who take the time to observe, analyse and reflect.
In Ireland this same morally and financially bankrupt ECB, who gave 40 billion Euro to unsecured property developers, is insisting that the Irish government bail out these bondholders. This action at the ECB is negating all the austerity sacrifices being made by Irish citizens as we speak. Thus cutbacks affecting disadvantaged school children, mentally handicapped teenagers, nurses, civil servants, firemen, teachers, social workers, college under-graduates all will be for nought because for ten years all Irish austerity savings will go to privileged bonder holders favoured by the ECB board. If this is the situation in Greece, what is the truth in Portugal, Greece and Spain?
For acting in collusion with this monetary tyranny the European Commission is in effect guilty of treason and should be stood down. Accordingly, European citizens, moving forward, must retake their sovereignty and re-invent the European ideal for the sake of their families, their community and Western posterity.
The one institution capable of protecting European rights is the council of ministers, This is the only moral Pan-European institution remaining simply because it has retained openness and transparency. This is due to the fact that a prime minister is directly elected by a nation answerable to an active national parliament and is thus subject to very direct checks and balances. For this reason the future of Europe should reside in a community of States not a comitern of Federal country councils. Lame national councils, lacking any real sovereignty, is all our national parliaments will become if the new economic “stability” treaty comes into effect. This development will be axiomatic given that treaty passage will leave every parliament with no autonomous power to pass budgets and independently allocate resources.
The vision of the European Union was originally built on the concepts of human rights and fairness arising out of the ashes of German military aggression. Europeans must wake up from their slumber, realise that this vision has been corrupted, and rebuild a new political structure based on justice and dignity not German financial aggression.
This process should commence with Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy seceding from the Euro and using their regained sovereign power to radically alter the manner in which the European Commission does business. These countries should form an integrated network of independent National Commercial Banks under a new exchange rate mechanism and allow the ECB to go the way of the former Argentinean central bank; its nearest historical rival The ECB with its balance sheet of 3.5 Trillion Euro has no real capital base other than the taxable hard labour of the hapless European farmer, merchant and factory operative. David Cameron, by using Britain’s veto two weeks ago, showed the way. Aware politicians should now keep this momentum moving in the direction towards a workable resolution. The ECB must be told their game is up.
If the crisis is not solved by moral political leadership a solution will be applied through people power, one way or another. History has shown that when such show of force becomes necessary the march of destiny is with the people, though it may take far longer than originally anticipated. But when the “penny drops” that the ECB is utterly to blame in its corruption and incompetence the social mood will have its epiphany and change will occur spontaneously. This is the social compact (or Zeitgeist to use Hegel’s terminology) being made manifest. Woe betide the politician who does not understand this truth. The tipping point is being reached and if The ECB does not change its manner of operation and rediscover its Christian heritage and social vision this institution must be reduced to the historical garbage can where it belongs.
If the Council of Ministers does not have the courage to usurp the ECB the social order will adopt their prerogatives and bring justice to bear. This is the true nature of democracy. It will take some time but the outcome will be inevitable. This is the lesson which Jean-Jacques Rousseau sought to teach the common man in 1752. The Sun King of France did not listen at the time. Hopefully the Council of Ministers and European National Parliaments will listen before it is too late.
Place de la Concorde anyone?
Ann Ferris
Stephen Donnelly
