If you approached a financial
expert and said, ‘Hello, lets ban usury’ you would likely get one of the
following responses:
- Outright panic
- A fit of endless screaming
- Uncontrollable sobbing
- Hysterical ranting
OR
- If you like the metaphor of 'fat cats' - they would arch their backs and start hissing
Getting rid of interest seems preposterous
to many, because it has become an integral part of our lives. The mere thought
of separating interest from our finances is as alien as the idea that Britain
could ever experience a heat wave – but wait, it did happen!
So IS the idea of not paying or
receiving interest really all that hard to comprehend?
Well it certainly wasn’t for some
of the greatest thinkers in human history.
Even from ancient times,
philosophers such as Aristotle, one of the most celebrated minds in history (Muslim
intellectuals of his time called him ‘The First Teacher’), whose contribution to Western
philosophy, mathematics, sciences and the arts is forever revered, disliked the
idea of interest. He viewed interest as an unnatural and unjust trade. Money to him was a sterile commodity and a
product of law which was intended to be used for exchange not for growing or
profiteering solely off of it.
However, Aristotle wasn’t the
only philosopher to oppose usury.
Plato, known for his
sophisticated writing, establishing the first institution for ‘higher
education’ also denounced the practice of interest. To him, usury was the cause
of many social problems and the opposite of what he called “virtuous
citizenship”, that is a society with morals. He saw interest as pitting one
class against another and predicted it would destroy the state. He wrote that
an ideal society would be one where interest is never practised and saw it as a
solution to containing the “evils of society” such as poverty, negligence and the
lack of morality.
Cato the Young was a politician
in Ancient Rome and famous for his incorruptible morality and charismatic
speeches. He was very public about his contempt for usury. He was once asked
“In
terms of the best way of property management, what about usury?” Cato sharply
replied
“what about killing a man?” He viewed usury as a criminal practice and
when acting as a magistrate on the Island of Sardinia he commanded for all
usurers to be exiled from the island, a decision for which he was criticised as
being ‘too harsh.’ In numerous speeches he compared usurers to thieves and on
some occasions he said that usurers were far worse than thieves!
So – what does all of this mean?
It means that opposing interest
isn't just some crazy idea cooked up by the religions. It has been put forward by
classical thinkers as a sustainable idea to prevent social injustice, class
division and overall destruction of society.
So one might ponder, if modern Western
civilisation was inspired by the laws, philosophy and intellects of ancient
Rome and Greek and Democracy was carved by the great minds of the ancient
world, would then banning usury be all that alien to us?
Aristotle, Cato and Plato didn’t
seem to think so, but then again what would the architects of Western
civilisation, philosophy and culture know, right?
