Those who read the “Michael” Journal know that Social Credit is not only a mere monetary reform, even though this reform is of the utmost importance. Its extent goes far beyond that. The financial reform it proposes would break the monopoly of money and credit, and free peoples from the debt-money bondage. But there are other monopolies, other bondages, like State monopoly, the totalitarian State, State dictatorship over individuals, that are fought by Social Credit just as fiercely as the financial dictatorship is fought.
At the service of the human person
As a matter of fact, the primary objective of Social Credit is the free blossoming of the human person. It is the enrichment of the person through association, in opposition to the all too-common domination of people by associations. No matter what type of association — small, large, local, provincial, federal, a free gathering of individuals, or a compulsory association of citizens into a nation — it must benefit all of its members.
As Pope John XXIII wrote in his encyclical letter Mater et Magistra, the increasing multiplication of social relationships can be, for the human person, enriching or suffocating. If it enriches the individual and all the people included in this relationship, it is well ordered. If it suffocates the associates, it is flawed.
This applies, in the economic area, to the sharing-out of the wealth offered by the national economy: each person, each individual in society must obtain a share that corresponds to the enrichment brought by life in society.
Without life in society (the division of labor), if each individual had to live alone, all by himself, and produce all of the goods he needs, the total output for the nation would be very small, in comparison to what it is now, thanks to life in society. Without life in society, there is no established social order, and without public goods, there would be no schools, no research laboratories. Moreover, isolated inventions would be neither spread nor passed on from one generation to the next, applied science would not exist, and progress would be almost nil. Natural resources would remain as much unexploited as in primitive economic systems.
This means that, by far, the largest part of today's production is due to life in ordered societies; it is an enrichment due to association, and all the members of the association — each and every citizen of the nation must get a share in that enrichment.
This is what the Social Credit philosophy teaches as regards economics. And this is why it provides the technique of a dividend to all, and the compensated price, in order to guarantee to each and all a share in this enrichment due to association.
This technique is in no way opposed to the private property of means of the production, to private enterprise — which is, as experience shows it, the most efficient way to produce an abundance of goods. But private property and enterprise have other goals than just enriching producers. They have also a social function, which must abide by the principle of the universal destination of earthly goods.
Besides, the private producers, or those associated with others, use goods and means that are not the fruit of their personal work: natural resources, created by God, progress, which is the fruit of discoveries, inventions, know-how, acquired and passed on from generation to generation, thanks to life in society. This gives to all of society, all of its members, claims on a share of the production, even on that which is made by private enterprise.
There are other goods besides material goods, like the great good of freedom. It is a good due to every individual, a good that no association, no union, no government (whether local, provincial, or national) can trample on. It is freedom for each person to choose, accept, or refuse, as long as the exercice of this freedom does not infringe on the freedom of others.
Of course, life in society requires some rules, certain laws that regulate the exercise of this right by individuals, but precisely in view of a greater good for all the members of society, to prevent anarchy, which would make the exercise of freedom impossible. Once again, it is the enrichment of association, and not the reducing of freedom among its members, that must inspire these laws.
These are principles that are held high by the Social Credit school. It is necessary to repeat them, for in practice, it happens that the thirst for power of some individuals, or the search for more power by governments, just ignores personal freedom. This is the great temptation of today's governments. Through State control and growing intervention intoareas that should be left to individuals, families, free associations, and lower levels of administration, governments encroach more and more on the freedom of choice for the people. Not only do governments infringe on the freedom of choice of its citizens, but also trade unions, on the freedom of choice of its workers, whom they want to enrol by force, or have pay dues by force.
A war on every dictatorship
All this is along the same political tendency as State socialism, Communism, and the technocratic State. The genuine Social Crediters of the “Michael” Journal fight the enemy on all these battlefronts. The present enemy is like the seven-headed hydra of Greek mythology. If one sees only one, and fights only that one, one will be eaten by the other six. What would be the use, for the Social Crediters, to only denounce the financial dictatorship, to propose cures for the present financial system if, at the same time, one allows the establishment of a political dictatorship, against which one will not even have the freedom to protest.
Besides, what is the difference between a political dictatorship established by a Soviet-style revolution by force, and a political dictatorship established in a “Fabian” way, gradually, in order not to awaken public opinion, and achieving a step when it is too late to oppose any fruitful resistance?
In Communist countries, totalitarianism was established by a one-party system. In Western countries, totalitarianism gradually takes place without eliminating opposition parties. It is taking place through organizations led by technocrats. Once such an organization is created by the party in office, it continues to exist, even after an election brings another party to power, as experience has proven.
Let us not mix up technocrats and experts. Experts are competent people who are altogether suited to executing, supplying, the results that are expected from them. As for technocrats, they do not content themselves with executing what is asked of them; they also want to decide what results they will impose upon the population. There is the “what to do” and “how to do it”. The “what to do” must respect the decision of individuals, families, free associations, governments within the fields of their jurisdictions, with the due approval of the elected representatives of the people. The “how to do it” must be left to the experts, who know precisely “how” to achieve the results asked by the population.
To transform experts into technocrats is a dictatorship. This is what they are trying to do today in our (so far) free countries. If we do not resist, if we let them do what they want, we will one day wake up in a political dictatorship just as totalitarian as in the worst Communist countries. This dictatorship will not even respect what is superior and most intimate in individuals. Little by little, we have seen the State seizing schools, hospitals. We now have children moulded by the State. The State now collects data on every citizen, because they want to know everything about you, in order to control you even more. The ultimate step in this process is the world government, with the merging of every sovereign nation into one global dictatorship, accompanied by a continuous control over all your activities through a microchip implanted under your skin.
These infringements on the freedom and dignity of the human person must not be the price to pay for economic security. Economic security without freedom would be just like animals in a stable: they may be well treated, but they are entirely subjected to the decisions of their masters.
Denouncing all of these infringements is part of the program of our Movement. We denounce these infringements in our “Michael” Journal and in our leaflets distributed by the millions all over Canada, the U.S.A., and even beyond, wherever there are volunteers, people of good will who understand the seriousness of the present times, to distribute them. To speak out the truth, to shout it from the rooftops, proclaiming principles and denouncing their infringement, is for us a duty.
But this is not enough. What we need, above all, are citizens, patriots, unyielding men and women that no amount of money nor honor will silence or stop. This is this type of people that our Movement tries to form.
In front of the huge task to accomplish, we obviously acknowledge our weakness. We therefore turn to Heaven to make our efforts fruitful. We have consecrated our Movement to the Virgin Mary, to Her Immaculate Heart, as She required at Fatima. We have put all of our Movement and activities under the patronage of St. Michael the Archangel. The daily recitation of the Rosary — even the fifteen decades — and the wearing of the Miraculous Medal (of the Virgin Mary who appeared in 1830 to St. Catherine Labouré in Paris, France), are customary among the Pilgrims of St. Michael. And our full-time Pilgrims go to Mass every morning.
We have the advantage, the grace, of being Catholics. We believe we can fight efficiently the growing trend towards a world government by opposing it, in the spiritual area, with an intense Catholic life, and in the political area, with the Social Credit philosophy and concrete financial proposals.