Of all the issues
facing our society today, you could argue that debt is one of the most pressing. Some
would sax the most pressing issue is the gender confusion issue, or abortion, or materialism, and they would all
have a good case, they really would. But debt is creating a crisis of poverty
amongst the younger generations, that could work themselves out in all kinds of
disasters.
This is nothing new in history. Every society that I am aware of has faced debt issues at some point. It is not a product of capitalism, or our modern monetary system. Debt issues are simply products of human avarice, envy and covetousness, and these forces work themselves out in all in societies and all economic systems.
Seeking to
forgive debts is not simply a biblical issue either. The Sumerians dealt with
these issues through debt forgiveness. So too did the Assyrians, Babylonians,
Greeks, Byzantines and many others. And so too did the Romans, who eventually
got such an entrenched Oligarchy that following their own traditions of debt
forgiveness and moderate land ownership, and general allotment of land to all
free men who contributed to the prosperity and safety of Rome, became untenable
to the landed classes. These oligarchs did everything they could to crush moves
to look after the people with debt forgiveness and redistribution of public or
even private lands.
Enter Tiberius
Gracchus who dedicated his short life to working for such justice. We read in
Plutarch’s Lives,
“
Of the territory which the Romans won
in war from their neighbours, a part they sold, and a part they made common
land, and assigned it for occupation to the poor and indigent among the
citizens, on payment of a small rent into the public treasury. And when the
rich began to offer larger rents and drove out the poor, a law was enacted
forbidding the holding by one person of more than five hundred acres of land.
For a short time this enactment gave a check to the rapacity of the rich, and
was of assistance to the poor, who remained in their places on the land which
they had rented and occupied the allotment which each had held from the outset.
But later on the neighbouring rich men, by means of fictitious personages,
transferred these rentals to themselves, and finally held most of the land
openly in their own names. Then the poor, who had been ejected from their
land, no longer showed themselves eager for military service, and neglected the
bringing up of children, so that soon all Italy was conscious of a dearth of
freemen, and was filled with gangs of foreign slaves, by whose aid the rich
cultivated their estates, from which they had driven away the free citizens. (emphasis
added).
An
attempt was therefore made to rectify this evil, and by Caius Laelius the
comrade of Scipio; but the men of influence opposed his measures, and he,
fearing the disturbance which might ensue, desisted, and received the surname
of Sapiens: Wise or Prudent (for the Latin word would seem to have either
meaning). Tiberius, however, on being elected tribune of the people, took the
matter directly in hand. He was incited to this step, as most writers say, by
Diophanes the rhetorician and Blossius the philosopher. Diophanes was an exile
from Mitylene, but Blossius was a native Italian from
Cumae,
had been an intimate friend of Antipater of Tarsus at Rome, and had been
honoured by him with the dedication of philosophical treatises. But some put
part of the blame upon Cornelia the mother of Tiberius, who often reproached
her sons because the Romans still called her the mother-in-law of Scipio, but
not yet the mother of the Gracchi. Others again say that a certain Spurius
Postumius was to blame. He was of the same age as Tiberius, and a rival of his
in reputation as an advocate; and when Tiberius came back from his campaign and
found that his rival had far outstripped him in reputation and influence and
was an object of public admiration, he determined, as it would seem, to outdo
him by engaging in a bold political measure which would arouse great
expectations among the people.
But
his brother Caius, in a certain pamphlet, has written that as Tiberius was
passing through "Tuscany on his way to Numantia, and observed the dearth
of inhabitants in the country, and that those who tilled its soil or tended its
flocks there were barbarian slaves (emphasis added), he then first
conceived the public policy which was the cause of countless ills to the two
brothers. However, the energy and ambition of Tiberius were most of all kindled
by the people themselves, who posted writings on porticoes, house-walls, and
monuments, calling upon him to recover for the poor the public land.
He
did not, however, draw up his law by himself, but took counsel with the
citizens who were foremost in virtue and reputation, among whom were Crassus
the pontifex maximus, Mucius Scaevola the jurist, who was then consul, and
Appius Claudius, his father-in-law. And it is thought that a law dealing with
injustice and rapacity so great was never drawn up in milder and gentler terms.
For men who ought to have been punished for their disobedience and to have
surrendered with payment of a fine the land which they were illegally enjoying,
these men it merely ordered to abandon their unjust acquisitions upon being
paid the value, and to admit into ownership of them such citizens as needed
assistance. But although the rectification of the wrong was so considerate, the
people were satisfied to let bygones be bygones if they could be secure from
such wrong in the future. The men of wealth and substance, however, were led by
their greed to hate the law, and by their wrath and contentiousness to hate the
law-giver, and tried to dissuade the people by alleging that Tiberius was
introducing a redistribution of land for the confusion of the body politic, and
was stirring up a general revolution.
But
they accomplished nothing; for Tiberius, striving to support a measure which
was honourable and just with an eloquence that would have adorned even a meaner
cause, was formidable and invincible, whenever, with the people crowding around
the rostra, he took his stand there and pleaded for the poor.
"The
wild beasts that roam over Italy," he would say, "have every one of
them a cave or lair to lurk in; but the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy
the common air and light, indeed, but nothing else; houseless and homeless they
wander about with their wives and children. And it is with lying lips that
their imperators exhort the soldiers in their battles to defend sepulchres and
shrines from the enemy; for not a man of them has an hereditary altar, not one
of all these many Romans an ancestral tomb, but they fight and die to support
others in wealth and luxury, and though they are styled masters of the world,
they have not a single clod of earth that is their own."
Such
words as these, the product of a lofty spirit and genuine feeling, and falling
upon the ears of a people profoundly moved and fully aroused to the speaker's
support, no adversary of Tiberius could successfully withstand. Abandoning
therefore all counter-pleading, they addressed themselves to Marcus Octavius,
one of the popular tribunes, a young man of sober character, discreet, and an
intimate companion of Tiberius. On this account Octavius at first tried to hold
himself aloof, out of regard for Tiberius; but he was forced from his position,
as it were, by the prayers and supplications of many influential men, so he set
himself in opposition to Tiberius and staved off the passage of the law. Now,
the decisive power is in the hands of any tribune who interposes his veto; for
the wishes of the majority avail not if one tribune is in opposition. Incensed
at this procedure, Tiberius withdrew his considerate law, and introduced this
time one which was more agreeable to the multitude and more severe against the
wrongdoers, since it simply ordered them to vacate without compensation the
land which they had acquired in violation of the earlier laws…”[1]
Tiberius
ended up manipulating the law to get his measure passed, for the redistribution
of land to the poor Roman free men. But this stirred up the powerful against
him, so that they eventually killed him. Rome had once been a city where the
pursuit of personal fortune was seen as less important than seeking the common
good of the whole of the nation. But as Rome grew and became prosperous the
Romans became corrupted as any other has been. They were more successful than
more, to be sure, but they were still corrupted, and then faced the kinds of
abuses of power that you seen from corrupted Oligarchs everywhere.
What we are
seeing in our nation today is nothing new. This debt crisis will crush our
society. It will drive away the young and the poor who will move overseas for
opportunities, or otherwise cause them to disconnect from society so as not to become simply
debt slaves. The wealthy will continue to bring in the foreign workers to replace
the citizens who refuse to work for those who are greedy with their profits,
and less and less and less people will be willing to fight for the nation, or
serve the nation selflessly, because they will see the rich as simply taking
advantage. And they will be right.
We all know
the solution. Debt forgiveness. Society wide. Also there will need to be redistribution
of the land to some degree. Lucky Australia has enough public land that this could
be done generously without taking from other citizens. But the time for change
is now, before this gets worse.
Tiberius ultimately
failed, and because of this Caesar decided to do with an army what Tiberius
failed to do with politics.
List of
References
[1] Plutarch’s
Lives Volume 2, The Life of Tiberius Gracchus, pp643-645, Castalia Library
Edition.
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