FROM The ‘Achilles Heel’ of the Conservative Movement by Eric D. Butler (1968):

A genuinely conservative approach to life requires humility, to accept the fact that the man is not self-sufficient. lt is surprising how many conservatives will accept this truth concerning some subjects, but reject it in the field of economics. Far too many conservatives create the impression that their concept of “rugged individualism” is a type of free-for-all where the self-made man succeeds and the weak go to the wall. The truth is that no man is self-sufficient today in the field of economic endeavour. Even those pioneering on some of the world’s remaining frontiers are making use of machinery and technical assistance which comes from co-operative industrial societies, themselves the heirs to a thousand years of “accumulated” industrial arts. The creative conservative of the Twentieth Century must take a new look at economics if he is to meet the Socialist challenge. Some proper humility is a prerequisite.

The following are basic truths which must be accepted in evolving a policy which will enable the best of our civilization to be preserved and developed along the lines of a genuinely conservative and co-operative society, one in which the creative initiative of every individual can find expression:

1. What might be described as man’s basic capital consists of vast natural resources, including the soil. Growth is impossible without sunshine, rain and fresh air. All this is a gift from God. lt is not produced by men’s work. Labour does not produce all wealth as the Socialist and Communist claim.

2. The use of basic capital requires production capital. This has been developed at an ever-accelerating rate because each new generation is the heir to the accumulated knowledge of the past, which is part of man’s cultural heritage. Without this knowledge, man would still be subsisting at a primitive level without even knowing about the wheel. It is more correct to describe man as a discoverer than an inventor. The truth concerning what is termed the “mechanical advantage” was DISCOVERED, not created by the man who first used a lever to lift a much greater weight than he could with only his own muscular energy. This and other truths are also a gift from God. The Indians watched the flow of water over the Niagara Falls for centuries, without realizing that here was an enormous source of power which could be harnessed to serve the individual. Present-day North Americans use this power, not because of greater physical ability than the lndians, but because they arc heirs to knowledge passed on to them by previous generations. Semi-automatic machinery driven by solar energy, computers, machines making machines, with human labour as such now a minor factor, are the results of the cultural heritage.

3. Both morally, and realistically, the individual is entitled to a share in the benefits possible because of the application of the cultural heritage to basic capital. But although the cultural heritage, like basic capital, must be regarded as a community heritage, in order that this heritage is preserved, extended and in the most competent and responsible manner on behalf of the individual, private ownership is essential. In a free~enterprise society, private owners should be a group of producing aristocrats, proud of their responsibilities and the opportunity to develop their various skills, serving a democracy of consumers.

4. As the “money vote’ and price system is the most flexible mechanism through which the individual can exercise effective control over how his heritage is to be developed, it is the legitimate function of Government to ensure that the volume of community purchasing power AUTOMATICALLY reflects economic realities. The proper level of water in a cattle drinking trough is automatically adjusted by a ball-valve and the amount of water consumed by the cattle. The actual mechanics necessary to place individuals in control of their own credit, is one for appropriate experts to create. No change in the ownership or administration of the private banks is necessary.

C.H. Douglas predicted in l924 that unless control of the community’s credit were decentralized into the hands of its individual members, and the economic system reoriented away from the direction in which it was being forced by those monopolizing the control of financial credit, there would come a time “well within the lives of the present generation” when “the blind forces of destruction will appear to be in the ascendant… There is, at the moment, no party, group, or individual possessing at once the power, the knowledge, and the will, which would transmute the growing social unrest and resentment (now chiefly marshalled under the crudities of Socialism and Communism) into a constructive effort for the regeneration of Society… we are merely witnesses to a succession of rear-guard actions on the part of the so-called conservative elements of Society, elements which themselves seen incapable or undesirous of genuine initiative; a process which can only result, like all rear-guard actions, in a successive, if not successful retreat on the part of the forces attacked. While this process is alone active, there seems to be no sound justification for optimism…”

A genuine counter-offensive by conservatives, demand a challenge to the policy of the credit monopoly.

[cont.]

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