The European Commission Has Broken The Social Contract
Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis Jan 31, 2012 - 07:32 AM GMT
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 such as the following need to be answered:
1. Why did the ECB allow national central banks in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and
Italy grant such exorbitant levels of credit for property development yet 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 current
and future Irish austerity savings will go to privileged bonder holders favoured by the ECB board. If this
is the situation in Ireland, what is the true scenario in Greece, Portugal, Italy 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
credible 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 and form new trading relationships under a new flexible exchange rate mechanism
thus allowing the ECB to go the way of the former Argentinean central bank of 1998 ( its nearest
historical parallel). 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, retailer and factory operative. The
current European "27" strapped with this "federal" mortgage will be hamstrung for decades to come.
David Cameron, by using Britain's veto in December, showed the way. The British elite and the City of
London know it's over. Aware politicians should now keep this momentum moving in the direction
towards a workable resolution. The ECB must be told their game is up. Astute politicos must make
preparation for the new normal coming down the tracks over the next 5-7 years. Anybody who thinks that
the current modality can continue indefinitely is insane and is listening to too much "Euro News".
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 moral 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. The first indication of this change is the
explosion of the underground economy around Europe. 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.
A 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 and its instrument, the European
Commission, the social order will adopt their prerogatives and bring justice to bear. This is the true nature
of real 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 the European Parliament will listen before it is too
late.
Place de la Concorde anyone?
By Christopher M. Quigley
B.Sc., M.M.I.I. Grad., M.A.
http://www.wealthbuilder.ie
Mr. Quigley was born in 1958 in Dublin and holds a Batchelor Degree in Accounting and Management from Trinity College/College of Commerce, Dublin and is a graduate of the Marketing Institute of Ireland. He commenced investing in the Stock Market in 1989. in Belmont, California where he lived for 6 years. He developed the Wealthbuilder investment and trading course over the last decade as a result of research, study, experience and successful application. This course marries Fundamental Analysis with Technical Analysis and focuses on 3 specific approaches. Namely: Momentum, Value and Pension Strategies.
Mr. Quigley is now based in Dublin, Ireland and Tampa Bay, Florida.
© 2011 Copyright Christopher M. Quigley - All Rights Reserved
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