I will not, unlike some, stop blogging over the holiday period. To ask me to stop writing is akin to asking me to stop breathing. I just do it. And I do not consider it work, which I do intend to stop doing for at least a week, as from today.
But, being aware that I tend to have more traffic in the week than at weekends and over holiday periods let me offer any reader who happens to note this post a very happy Christmas.
I am all too aware of the hope implicit in that statement. I know too well that this does not always happen for everyone. But that is one reason why I write, and it's what my work has been about for a long time.
The message of Christmas was, and is, revolutionary. It was about freedom from debt and good news for the poor.
Ignore all the trappings if you wish. I tend to do so. Certainly ignore all the oppression humans have used Christianity to deliver. Instead go and read the real thing (and reading the Bible won't make you a convert, and I am certainly not seeking anything of the sort) and what you see is that the real story that a chap whose name was Jesus (who I think probably did exist and who probably did teach at pretty much the time scholars suggest likely) was actually delivering was about emancipation from the yoke of economic oppression.
The depressing part is that this oppression continues.
The good news is that, despite all attempts to clamp down on those who question it, some are still willing to do so.
They don't always succeed.
But the practical expression of hope at Christmas is that we have to keep trying.
Sermon over.
Have a good one.
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Richard,
As I’m sure you know, Professor Michael Hudson (see his book “and forgive them their debts” https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2019/08/05/book-review-and-forgive-them-their-debts-lending-foreclosure-and-redemption-from-bronze-age-finance-to-the-jubilee-year-by-michael-hudson/) believes Jesus (who I am sure existed) was crucified by the Romans for his stance on debt-forgiveness.
The above is yet another book to add to the list, though I’ve read an earlier monograph of Professor Hudson’s on the issue, so I cannot say if it is the case, but it would not surprise me to discover the Romans were running a scam with the Temple authorities, over the purchase of sacred money from the moneychangers, whose tables Jesus overturned, by charging a ruinous exchange rate of Roman denarii for sacred shekels, with the Romans creaming off the surplus so earned.
Must get the book to check, but it is certainly true that ordinary, impoverished Judaean/Palestinian inhabitants had a pretty tough, debt-burdened existence. A call to remit those debts would have been very attractive to such people.
I buy Hudson’s thesis
Me too 🙂 (or should the be # ?!)
Andrew Dickie says:
“believes Jesus (who I am sure existed) was crucified by the Romans for his stance on debt-forgiveness….”
I’ve not read Michael Hudson, but I was brought up with the New Testament accounts of the life of this rebel, Jesus.
It was not the Romans who crucified Jesus for their reasons; the New Testament account is adamant about that, it was the Church authorities of the day that had Jesus done away with because it was their own financial advantage which was threatened. They had a nice little earner going on under their own control, and in a land made stable by Roman occupation.
Jesus, we are told, when asked the question about taxes (in the hope that he would lead an insurrection against Roman occupation) asked the fundamental tax question. Who’s head is on the coinage? Then render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. It was not God’s head which was depicted on the Temple coinage, I think. The Temple ran its own privatised tax system. Not unlike what we see today, except today it is not a religious scam, it is the uber-wealthy who tax us to provide their wealth. Their profit margin is the tax we pay on every private sector transaction. It is when those transactions are for the staples of our very existence that the system is clearly skewed against us.
I am afraid this comment is off-thread.
I was looking for your comment, Richard on the appointment of Andrew Bailey as Governor of the Bank of England (perhaps I have missed it). Bailey is the archetypal insider; his whole career has been in the Bank of England or FCA, for a significant period in very senior roles.
When I think of financial regulation over the last 10-15 years I find I am obliged to focus on the big issues, and most of them are bad news; the Financial Crash, the near collapse of the Banking System, the weak regulation, the insipid reforms, the abject Fraud Act (2006), the LIBOR scandal, the PPI scandal, the £53Bn in fines paid by banks in PPI fines over 15 years, the frailty of the financial audit (you know far more about this than me), the wretched Global Restructuring Unit of RBS, and now the leaked audio-feed of the BofE Governor’s press conferences. What are we to make of that record of our regulatory institutions? Are our regulatory institutions up to the task? Are they the measure of wisdom in financial matters. Are insiders what we need?
For me, there is only one test of adequacy; their track record. I rest my case.
He is the archetypal insider
So we know what to expect
Thank you for your blog Richard, all year and every day.
Have a restful and happy Christmas with your family and friends.
Jesus was a rebel, wasn’t he…and the message relayed through centuries make sense, if we fail to understand that, we fail society, and ourselves.
So as an atheist, and a humanist, I also wish you a peaceful Winter Solstice, let’s also celebrate the end of darkness and the return of light….even this year. I have (some) faith!
Have a braw Christmas Richard
AND
A very Happy New Year….!
Thanks