Critical Thinking's research and analysis is a collaborative work of thousands of individuals and groups, both contemporary and historic, and draws on data and understanding from the current and previous civilisations. Critical Thinking comprises a group of individuals in London interacting with groups and individuals around the world. It is the synthesis of this wide analysis of information and ideas presented here.

The term Political Economy has been expunged from contemporary discourse; politics and economics are regarded as separate, specialist subjects. However, like wealth and power, the two are inextricably linked. This was well understood in the past when many great thinkers were polymaths, eg. Aristotle, Archimedes, Claudius Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Michelangelo, Étienne de La Boétie, Gottfried Leibniz, Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin and Bertrand Russell .

Critical Thinking at the Free University is a non-hierarchical, apolitical, collaborative research and education project that analyses the current political economy to identify fundamental flaws and potential levers for change. The organisation aims to understand the historical context of issues from different perspectives and explore their current and future impacts on social cohesion, inequality, individual liberty and civilisation as we know it. Critical Thinking has developed a unified theory of political economy and proposes action to create a freer, fairer world.

What is it to be human? Religious ideology aside, we are sovereign beings, with the right to self-determination, co-dependent on each other, our ecology and the universe. That just is.

Remembering this, what has been our experience since birth and since the emergence of institutional hierarchy? Our sovereignty has been denied, initially through overt despotism and, latterly, through increasingly pervasive conditioning and control. So what part does “democracy” play in all this?

In the days of kings and despots, the ruler would need the support of the most powerful and influential people in their realm and thus the pyramid of power began to evolve. Few in the ruler's court were in a position to threaten the ruler directly but some could and did garner sufficient support among their peers to challenge the prevailing ruler and assume control. Thus emerged the inevitable practice of intrigue, deception and manipulation as various players jostled for power while the commons (land and resources) were progressively commandeered and distributed as incentives to keep those within the ruler's court loyal.

Enter the bankers. Rulers always needed money to stay in power, let alone increase it and bankers have (and can create) money. Bankers willingly lend money to rulers in exchange for profit and power: the power to acquire more wealth (land and resources) through debt exploitation and exclusive power over money creation to buy favours in order to shape the realm for their own benefit. The problem was/is, despots die (or are murdered) and their debts die with them; any replacement ruler would repudiate the loans as illegitimate - banks didn’t control the military and consequently lacked the means to enforce payment.

The banking families didn’t only lend to the ruler, they would also lend to the ruler's court: the contenders for power and key influencers, ie. those with access to the levers of power. Pre-democracy, the primary influencers were the clergy, local landed gentry and the military. Bankers also perfected the art of espionage and deception. Let’s not forget, these banking dynasties are international, lending money to both sides in conflict, extracting their “pounds of flesh all round”. Thus the Structural Elite began to take form.

Read more...