Democracy or Demopotency (ePub)

If the American dollar is accepted and even coveted in the most remote corners of the world, it is because people have an unshakable confidence in this piece of paper, being convinced that it will be accepted at fair value when they in turn present it to other parties wherever they may be. Such incredible confidence in the value of a piece of paper did not come by chance, it was imposed by a benevolent force. The Tang Dynasty in the 7th century, the Yan Dynasty in the 13th, Law in France in the 17th, and others have attempted to establish monetary systems using paper over the centuries, but without lasting success.
Our modern world got started when the Huguenots and the Sephardim, forever persecuted by the Holy Roman Empire's Kings of Divine Right, joined forces in Amsterdam in 1602. When they moved their headquarters to the City in London in 1689, and founded the Bank of England in 1694, they were at last able to make loans at will because thereafter they were sure of getting repaid by parliament. The research and development period (R&D) that followed is known as the industrial revolution.
The greatest man who ever lived, an Ashkenazi, founded the Bank of North America in 1781, and then took over the Bank of England in 1810, and following those events, mindboggling amounts of money started being invested in R&D, in America as well as Europe.
The cotton gin, the steam engine and Bessemer steel followed, but electricity is what launched the world we know today. When the hydroelectric power plant in Oregon at Willamette Falls in 1890 sent power fourteen miles downriver to downtown Portland for street lighting, that was the beginning of urbanization. Thereafter, the world was lit up, and since cities now provided running water and water treatment plants, an astounding number of jobs were created, and the consumer world followed. That world became entrenched in 1944 with the signing of the Bretton Woods agreement.
However, as fabulous as that world of leisure is, it is not in tune with our genetic make-up, and our quality of life is diminishing instead of increasing. How can we teach the values of and go back to self-empowerment while being the victims of mass empowerment? That is the question.