Clifford Hugh DOUGLAS
Shortly before his death, over fifty years ago, Clifford Hugh Douglas surveyed the landscape near Aberfeldy in Scotland, turned to a close colleague and said:
“You know, T.J., I think the time is approaching when we shall have to challenge this monstrous and fantastic overgrowth of industrial expansion – fundamentally. Really, you know, I personally can see nothing particularly sinful about a small dynamo; but this thing we’ve got is past a joke. If it isn’t a joke, it is Satanic.”
(See below for 'Further Writing by C H Douglas' )
Today, economic growth rides roughshod over the earth, devastating the natural environment and sustainable rural economies in the third world and Eastern Europe. Local power over local resources is increasingly swept aside by money power exercised from a distance. Farmers are lured into accepting loans, for machinery, fertilisers and ‘improved’ seeds, and face falling financial returns from the sale of cash crops grown for export. Centralisation of financial control is not, however, inevitable. For practical change to occur it is necessary for ordinary people in their individual localities to take stock of their resources, both in terms of materials and skills, so that we, each and every one of us, cease to participate in the war against nature and society. The analysis of the political economy presented by Douglas in books, articles, public addresses and radio broadcasts between 1918 and 1952 remains a rich resource for the development of a socially just and ecologically sustainable world economy.
A key problem exists in the artificial divisions between scientific and artistic world views, divisions which Rudolf Steiner sought to overcome through his extensive lectures and publications. For Douglas, the biggest danger comes from the powerful would-be reformer seeking to impose his / her version of Utopia on a powerless community. The way forward is for individuals to take time out to study good works, reflect and experiment with local economic alternatives. For that to happen, a Basic (or Citizens’) Income for all – which could be introduced overnight – would be of incalculable value. The quest is not to eliminate industrial progress, but to use appropriate technologies to conserve local skills and resources free from enforced slavery to an unsustainable global economy.
Further writing by C.H. Douglas
Douglas' earliest articles:
The English Review, (December 1918)
The Delusion of Super-Production
C. H Douglas
'It is hardly necessary to draw attention to the insistence with which we are told that in order to pay for the war we must produce more manufactured goods than ever before...'
The English Review, XXVIII (1919): 49-58
The Pyramid of Power
C. H. Douglas
'At various well-defined epochs in the history of civilisation there has occurred such a clash of apparently irreconcilable ideas as has at this time most definitely come upon us.....[there] is a clear indication that a general re-arrangement is imminent...'
The English Review, XXIV (1919): 166-69
What is Capitalism?
C.H. Douglas
'When two opposing forces of sufficient magnitude push transversely at either end of a plank--or problem--it revolves: there is Revolution...'
The English Review, XXVIII (1919): 368-70
Exchange and Exports
C.H. Douglas
'In the welter of economic propoganda served up to us, like the powder in the jam, with our morning and evening prize-fight , murder and motor-bandit thrills, and labelled the news...a certain group of features recur and are inter-connected...'
The New Age, No. 1373, XXIV, No. 9 (1919)
A Mechanical View of Economics
C. H. Douglas
Books by C.H. Douglas
Credit, Power and Democracy- Part1, Part2, Part3
Further Reading
This report, submitted by Major Douglas to His Majesty's Premier and Legislative Council of Alberta in 1935, also includes the correspondance which followed the report, between Douglas and the Premier and also the Attorney General
AUDIO & TRANSCRIPTION
Audio: C.H Douglas - "The Causes of War" |
||
|
To begin listening, click on the title "The Causes of War" underneath the audio playback buttons. To stop listening, click the Stop button. |
|
For a transcript of this audio, please click here. |
||