The importance of accepting the truth.
1. Not copper. Red.
The bigger children in my Christian kindergarten bullied me and said, “Rune has red hair, Rune has red hair”.
I complained about it to my mother, and I said that I wouldn’t go to the kindergarten anymore. She comforted me, and added, “it isn’t true, you have beautiful copper-brown hair”.
My grandmother said the same, “no, Rune, it’s copper”.
This didn’t, of course, stop any of the bullying.
Christian adults who worked in the kindergarten didn’t try very hard to put an end to it either. They did, however, feed us with a lot of stories about Jesus Christ and how he handled conflicts. Jesus had said, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also”.
So, I found myself in some sort of a prison. I had to attend kindergarten, and the rules created by those in charge, meant that my days were awful.
Until one day, when something clicked.
I came home and said:
“No, mama. It’s true that I have red hair”.
When the bullies understood that I had accepted my faith, their incentives to behave badly quickly faded.
Accepting the truth had made me impervious to their insults.
When I look back at this story, I think it was fundamental in shaping my belief system, and that the belief system that I over the years would equip me with made the whole difference to me.
2. People’s belief system is civilizations layer zero.
It affects all the other layers. If people have an antihuman belief system, it will harm the rest of the society.
It will make us destroy more than we create, which is the very opposite of one of the superpowers that sets us apart from other species.
Believing in things that aren’t true is one example of something that is antihuman.
If, for instance, enough people believe that the state is benevolent, that it is a creator that helps us, and that we therefore need to be subservient to it, then this an example of a belief system that isn’t true, and that will punish us repeatedly.
3. The golden age
At the turning of the 19th Century the western civilization was at the peak of the golden age. It had never happened before in the history of humankind that so many people had been pulled out of poverty.
This period, which lasted from the end of the Napoleon war in 1813 and until WWI in 1914, also produced some of the greatest inventions, such as the telegraph, the internal combustion engine and the airplanes.
These inventions also represented a tremendous promise to mankind – more freedom, and more safety.
4. The belief system in the golden age
The golden 101 years from 1813 to 1914 came about because kings and their people alike where tired of endless wars.
These wars had been fueled by inflation – the king’s ability to borrow money from their central banks, which printed money out of nothing. This evil innovation had started in Sweden in 1669.
By printing money out of thin air to finance the wars, and requiring everybody to accept the states’ official banknotes, the kings could extract all of the savings of the people and the fruits of their labor, without having to levy unpopular taxes.
When the delegates met in 1787 to write the draft paper that would become the United States constitution, several of the founding fathers argued that inflation was a crime against humanity.
Their experience with how the Bank of England had supported the English war machine during the American revolution had a lasting effect on the United States. Despite many efforts from powerful financiers throughout the 19thcentury, the US government didn’t establish a central bank until before 1914.
In addition to the principles of individual liberty, freedom of speech, protection of property rights and trade, recognizing as a fact that manipulation of the money supply was evil was at the core of the civilization’s development in the golden age.
In much of the 19th century, the US was on a de facto “monetary freedom” standard, where people were free to use the money, they liked best. Towards the end of the century, most countries tied their official currencies to gold, ensuring that the money supply increased very slowly.
5. The size of the state in the golden age
Sound money and a great deal of respect for individual human rights enabled a century which was unprecedented when it came to peace and prosperity.
The flipside was that the state apparatus was very, very small, as compared to what the normal situation is today. The public sector’s use of money in 1900 was 6% of GDP in Norway, and in 1902 it was 7% in the United States. People rarely had anything to do with the state.
6. The tragedy of 1914 and its aftermath
When World War I broke out in 1914, most states ordered their central banks to shut the doors to block people from withdrawing golds and their savings from their banks.
This kicked off a century of wars and inflation, which has lasted up until today.
Once governments again could create money free of charge, they quickly gained in power and size. Over time, the growth and strength they gained due to the inflation policy enabled them to increase taxes.
As a result, the public sector’s spending is almost equivalent to two-thirds of the GDP in Norway, and a little less than half of the GDP in the US.
This development has developed in tandem with the change in people’s belief systems.
Today most people believe that they depend on the state apparatus, and not the other way around.
7. The redhead’s ancestors
Let’s jump 1000 years back in time. In my region of Trøndelag, my ancestors enjoyed the rights to use the money that they liked best – monetary freedom.
The Trønders’ right to life and property were secured by the law, which had developed spontaneously over generations. Unlike the other regions in the Nordic countries, we had some basic rules which were called the resistance provisions.
The Frostating law stated:
“No man shall do tilferd* to a man, neither the King nor any other man. But if the King does so, an army arrow [war messenger] shall be cut. It shall go in all eight counties, and all the peasants shall go against the King and kill him if they can. But if the King escapes, he shall never be allowed to return to the country. Whoever will not go against him shall make three marks, and likewise the one who does not pass on the arrow.”
«Tilferd*» was the same as someone taking someone else’s property without the consent of the Frostating (the parliament in Trøndelag).
The provision set up a principle of separation of powers aimed at protecting the people of Trøndelag against dictatorial royal power.
Violation of the law led to harsher punishment for the king than for others. The law entailed both the right and the duty of the Trønders (residents of Trøndelag) to kill the King if he took people’s property, for example by imposing taxes, if it was not previously approved by the Frostating.
8. The belief system in the Viking Age in Trøndelag.
The resistance provisions were likely born out of the acknowledgement of the fact that freedom comes at a cost.
If you decided to live in this area, you would have to obey the law, pass on the war arrow, and risk your own life to kill the king.
9. The end of monetary freedom in Trøndelag
My ancestors’ freedom ended in 1050. It broke down immediately after King Harald Hardraade killed the powerful Trønder, Earl Einar Tambarskjelve, and his son Eindride, and Einars soldiers and the people of Trøndelag didn’t dare to revenge their leader.
As soon as Einar was out of the way, Hardraade establish the rule of inflation in Norway. 16 years later, he brought ruin to the Norwegian people when he lost the battle of Stamford Bridge in an effort to conquer the throne of England.
10. Conclusion
Now in the last few years, after having studied monetary policy and written books about this, I have realized that there is a fundamental connection between the people’s belief system and the monetary system we get.
I have concluded that the monetary system is civilization’s layer one. It’s built on top of the belief system, and it forms the basis for all the other layers.
Rule number one in any healthy belief system is that you respect truth for what it is. For me it started when I told my mother about the color of my hair.
As I said, my situation in the kindergarten had been prison-like. And with an ever-growing state and human rights that are being eroded in a frightening tempo by the politicians, you might feel something of the same today.
As a first step, try to reorient your belief system.
Try to identify what you think is true, and respect it.
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Thank you for reading.
This piece was partly based on my book Fraudcoin, as well as my upcoming book Arrow of Truth.
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