money...

from President Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, 26 Nov 1798

Quote:
"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing."

from President Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, 28 May 1816

Quote:
"And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

from President Andrew Jackson, in his Veto Message regarding the Bank of America; July 10, 1832, it can be found in its entirety here:
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/ajveto01.asp

Quote:
"It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of executing the constitutional power “to coin money and regulate the value thereof.” Congress have established a mint to coin money and passed laws to regulate the value thereof. The money so coined, with its value so regulated, and such foreign coins as Congress may adopt are the only currency known to the Constitution. But if they have other power to regulate the currency, it was conferred to be exercised by themselves, and not to be transferred to a corporation. If the bank be established for that purpose, with a charter unalterable without its consent, Congress have parted with their power for a term of years, during which the Constitution is a dead letter. It is neither necessary nor proper to transfer its legislative power to such a bank, and therefore unconstitutional."

from James A. Garfield, later 20th US President, commenting on a resolution offered by James Weaver of the Greenback Party that the government should issue all money, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives (1880-04-05), published in Brice, S. M. (1882). Financial Catechism and History of the Financial Legislation of the United States from 1862-1896. Chicago: Franklin Printing Co.. p. 224. Retrieved on 2009-01-08.

Quote:
"It would convert the Treasury of the United States into a manufactory of paper money. It makes the House of Representatives and the Senate, or the caucus of the party which happens to be in the majority, the absolute dictator of the financial and business affairs of this country. This scheme surpasses all the centralism and all the Caesarism that were ever charged upon the Republican party in the wildest days of the war or in the events growing out of the war."

from Woodrow Wilson, 28th US President, The New Freedom (1913), pages 185 and 201

Quote:
"A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men ... We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world — no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

from Thomas Edison, The New York Times, December 6, 1921

Quote:
"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good, also. The difference between the bond and the bill is the bond lets money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way. It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million in bonds and not $30 million in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people."

from Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President, in a letter to Col. Edward Mandell House (21 November 1933); as quoted in F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, 1928-1945, edited by Elliott Roosevelt (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950), pg. 373

Quote:
"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson."

from Bernard Lietaer, economist, one of the designers of the Euro, in an interview that can be read in its entirety here:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/money-print-your-own/beyond-greed-and-...

Quote:
"That's right. While economic textbooks claim that people and corporations are competing for markets and resources, I claim that in reality they are competing for money - using markets and resources to do so. So designing new money systems really amounts to redesigning the target that orients much human effort.
Furthermore, I believe that greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament; I have come to the conclusion that greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using. For example, we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.
Money is created when banks lend it into existence. When a bank provides you with a $100,000 mortgage, it creates only the principal, which you spend and which then circulates in the economy. The bank expects you to pay back $200,000 over the next 20 years, but it doesn't create the second $100,000 - the interest. Instead, the bank sends you out into the tough world to battle against everybody else to bring back the second $100,000."

from Bernard Lietaer, The Future of Money (2001)

Quote:
"Money is an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange."

My point in posting these particular quotations is to point out the simplicity that an alternate reality, society or community can have. This simplicity is specifically stated in the last quote from Bernard Lietaer, "Money is an agreement within a community..."

WE decide what WE agree to, and when we do NOT decide for ourselves, someone else will... and HAS!

The continuing perception within the spiritual community that money is a medium of exchange of ENERGY is a compromise to the agreements made by our forefathers to shackle themselves and their descendants to the power of debt and scarcity. I am not in denial of the fact that money has energy. But if the very nature of how money is created comes from a foundation of scarcity and lack, how can our creations with this medium be untainted?

We exchange energy heart to heart. This should be clear to any feeling human being. Everything else is just packaging.

I would find it difficult to believe that I am the only so-called spiritual person who has noticed that when we try to manifest, even with pure loving intent, plans that utilize the making of money as a core element in their ingredients, those plans often go awry and have conflicted results. I would suggest that it is not the level of intent that causes a conflicted result. I would suggest it is the utilization of a dualistic mindset (our understanding of money) to create a reality of Oneness. Upon reflection, it should be clear this is like trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

We, collectively and individually, have the means and the models of other ways of exchange. If the deeper reality is that we are all One, and that our true nature is one of abundance and prosperity, we have to learn to start seeing the potential all around us, without regard to our bank accounts.

We are not beholden to the system of currency as it functions today. In fact, we owe it to our children as well as the Earth, to re-create our perceptions as well as our practice in how we exchange with one another. It has been a lie we have believed to think that we owe any person or any institution the majority of our waking hours just to sleep inside.

The idea that economics is an evolutionary process is an illusion that is as real as we allow it to be. As the quotes listed above should illustrate, the situation we as a global society now find ourselves in has been manufactured. It has been foreseen. It has been warned about. And it exists now only as long as we as a society allow it to.

We, as individuals, may not convince the current power brokers to do things differently. Why should THEY change? Things go pretty well for them.

But we, as individuals, can make a huge difference in our own local communities. From the reading I have been doing, this is as difficult as understanding the golden rule.

I would encourage people to follow synchronicities as they appear specifically concerning these matters. I believe that as we educate ourselves to alternatives that we have not been educated about within our current system, we can each begin to see those areas within our own communities where we will be able to affect change in the most loving and kindest of ways.

Peace
Steve
eggonalimb.net