My cousin Mark and I are avid readers. To his credit, he reads more most days than I do. On the other hand, while he is currently reading 2 books at a time, I am reading four, not including the Bible. Sometimes the book is so good that we will read it at the same time. It gives us lots to talk about.
One book we are currently both reading is The Creature from Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin. It's a doorstop of a book. I have the hardcover, and it's big. This monster contains 535 pages, excluding the bibliography and index. The book is about the history of the Federal Reserve.
I have long known that the Federal Reserve was not a true government organization. The more I get into this book, the more I realize that it's not just a central bank, it's a cartel. The idea that rich, greedy, power-hungry people set up our modern banking system to protect and expand their own wealth is really appalling.
This book has me thinking a lot about my country and how far we have deviated from the Founding Fathers' original intent. We think we are free in this country, and we are to an extent. But if you dig deep enough, you will find that these freedoms are fragile.
We've seen it most recently with the attack on free speech. Social media and tech companies monitoring and censoring what we can see is alarming. If the information we have access to is compromised, one way or another, how can we find the truth about anything? If there are people who work hard to limit what we can gather, how can we actually think critically?
It's also like that with banking. We think the current banking system is designed for the people to have a place to hold money and maybe make a little interest. However, when that money is literally backed by nothing, the value is arbitrary. Moreover, the more money circulating in the economy, the higher the prices will be. Too much money makes each dollar worth less because its value is determined by supply.
All this makes me realize that many of us Americans have been far too trusting of the people running the country. I mean more than the politicians. I mean the business leaders and heads of academia. Some of them may have the rest of us in mind when making decisions that affect us all. But many do not. I fear there are far more self-serving people than we realize.
I think the answer is for us to do as 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says,
"But test all things; hold fast to what is good." (1Th 5:21 ESV)
It's up to us to be critical of everything we see, hear, and read these days. We must take time to stay informed, but also to verify the information we consume and test it for goodness and truthfulness. This research takes effort; finding the truth in a sea of lies and propaganda is not easy. But we have access to more information than ever before, and we have a duty to use that information to discern the truth.
For me, it means questioning everything. This means more time reading, studying, listening to all points of view, and filtering it back through my sources of truth. These are the Bible, the Constitution, and the great thinkers who shaped America's founding.
What about you? Are you happy with the state of things? Do you feel emboldened to search for truth? Or are you overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information? I'd love to hear your story.
—Daniel