I’ve clicked on the link above supplied by Golem at the end of his piece and didn’t find much of use other than a paper or two which I will try and read ASAP. As for campaigns in Ireland on debt audit, at the start of March a number of prominent figures in Ireland called http://www.afri.ie/campaigners-call-for-debt-audit all it does is bring you to that site’s homepage now.

It seems our anger in this country has been neutered by a number of factors, a sense of national shame over the gluttony and selfishness of the Celtic tiger years, a culture of emigration meaning the young never really saw themselves as have an investment in this countries future and thus left it’s running to the heirs of the civil war parties, a deeply help culture of conservatism and subservience to Church and state, and most of all the fact that we never had the shock of having our ATMs run empty that they did in Iceland. It seems now as a nation we’re like some character in the Sopranos who've only gradually realised this boat trip might not end the way we had hoped for and all we can do is meekly beg “not in the face, okay?”

I sincerely want to do something anything, but I’ve only so much time to give. Personally I’m giving up nearly all my time to setting up a business that maybe just maybe might save my future and my family’s before the jaws finally snap shut two years down the line.

With regards Peter’s suggestion, I’ve read/watched a bit on the subject but it’s not something you see given any mention in the Irish media, instead we get market analysts and economists bleating about the injustice of it all without ever offering solutions or alternatives from outside the current debt finance/fractional reserve system, which is the only reality they’re willing to deal with.

We’ve reached a stage where we can be our own masters, where we can (maybe) understand the very fabric of the universe and our bodies, were we no longer live in an era of war and disease (at least in the West), and still we lay in the thrall and mercy of this idea of money, this abstract concept which says these coins and paper will buy tomorrow’s dinner and that this person is worth more than you, so tough, a concept which rules and determines the lives and happiness of effectively every human on the planet.

But what can I do about it? I’m a fine art graduate who has only a basic grasp of and it’ll take years before I could understand it all enough to be able to say something sensibly or useful about it, and I honestly can’t afford to give up more time than I already do.

I don’t want to riot and hurt people, though 500 million years of evolution, sex and survival makes me want to fight just like any other animal, I’m desperate to in fact, but fight what; a multi-headed hydra I’ve no idea how to kill? I can give out about the people of my country doing nothing, but here I am in front of my glowing computer screen, clenching my fists and gritting my teeth, typing words into the Internet for strangers I’ll likely never meet.

Just like everyone else it seems, I do nothing and let evil happen.

I now believe that we have reached a time where scarcity is being manufactured via the credit system?

Malinvestments waste resources.

Housing in Ireland is now in excess of supply, but NAMA is there to ensure that there are still homeless people and those who take welfare form the state to live in crapulous B&B premises where crime is rife.

Modern Ireland!

The truth is that modern governments have ceded seigniorage to the banks. It is like ceding control of the courts to the lawyers.

Maybe we have already done that too.

Another interesting one for me is why would you need them to.

Instead of issuing debt, the government could issue money. That appears to be ruled out, yet it's a convention rather than a law that we must issue debt.

Since governments started listening to Friedman et al, the idea that "printing money" causes hyperinflation seems to have become accepted as a truth which needs no demonstration. But where there is unused capacity in the economy, it is quite feasible to issue money rather than bonds, and achieve the same ends but without handing a perpetual free lunch to parasites.

Heresy I know, but there, I've said it. May the lord strike me down

Review if you dare, the events of the French Revolution. We are headed that way as food shortages and revolts around the world stack up with climate disruption, nuke discharges and 1M displaced persons from Japan. They will only want to come in small number to Ireland, but their government may pay for a few thousand long term tourists? Australia is already considering this.

These are interesting times.

As said before, default now is actually premature as the EZ and UK are willing to paper over the problems and so long as they do so, turning over old debt for new and rolling up interest due, we are toeing the Euro line.

When they can no longer do that, we may default. We need the time to reorganize!

I read somewhere that during the past 200 years, Greece has defaulted on average every 5 years.

And they're still around.

But the most recent, successful and clean default? Iceland.

Default always works best when a society is cohesive, realistic and hard working in the country defaulting.

The little England thing was what was worrying me, but I think it will be interesting to see where they go & what success they might have. According to their website they have a big agenda, perhaps they are flexing their muscles & if they are successful they might move onto bigger things. The guy speaking at the end seemed to know the legal end of things & if they get the publicity it might just shine a light on a lot of the things that are wrong & shake more people out of their apathy.

The English were once at the forefront of the fight for liberty, Magna carta, Watt Tyler, The Levellers, the 1st constitutional monarchy & parliament, The Chartists, John Ruskin & many more, it would be great to revive some of that fire & spirit which did make the world a better place. These steps of course, all happened at a huge cost & I don't think we need another Oliver Cromwell or a rise in English or British nationalism, but at least there are more signs that ordinary ( so called ) people are starting to put up a fight.

Interesting recourse to archaic laws which may well still be in force, but I would have wished for a more useful cause and target.

I had a good conversation with one of them. Sincere bloke. Old time activist. Cowboy hat, walking stick and a full tank of pissed-off determination.

I think it's on the level and as far as I can ascertain they are right. Its teh equivalent of arresting Mugabe on the street. There is a law tah supports it, but some big git in a slick suit still beats the crap out of you for trying it on.

I'm all for it.

Thanks for the link to the film.