NEW WORLD ORDERS, by Gary North

Daniel’s prophetic explanation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream announced a coming fifth kingdom. Four would precede it: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Alexander’s, and Rome. The fifth would not have a successor.

The twentieth century has been noted for the number of would-be inheritors of the title, New World Order. The nineteenth century had the British empire, but it was a naval empire except in India and assorted colonies. It did not rule in the Americas, nor did British leaders suggest that it should.

It was toward the end of the nineteenth century that Germany began to dream of a colonial empire. Under Lenin, the Soviet Union became intoxicated with the dream of an international socialist order.

In 1918, the kings departed. For the first time since the days of King Saul, men no longer lived under the rule kings. The King of England reigned; he did not rule. The three grandsons of Queen Victoria had effectively destroyed the dreams of monarchy, 1914-18. Two monarchical empires were gone; both would be replaced by non-monarchical dreams of empire. One lasted until 1945; the other until 1991.

To begin to understand what lies ahead of us, we need to understand what has gone before. We are witnessing the death throes of a twentieth-century dream: the New World Order.

Hitler referred to his rule as a new order. He invoked millennial language when he spoke of a thousand-year reich. But Hitler was no world conqueror, contrary to wartime propaganda. He wanted "living space" for Germans, but he did not seek a world empire. "Heil [salvation] Hitler" was a salute that could not be expected to survive beyond his death nor outside of Northern Europe. National Socialism under Hitler was expansionist, but it was not regenerative, except for Aryans. Hitler was content with allies in Italy and Japan, but these allies had their own notions of race and national regeneration. What they all dreamed of was the construction of new men through State action, most notably war.

In contrast, the international socialists, especially under Lenin and Stalin, did seek world domination. Theirs was an empire based on an idea: Marxism. Marxism was internationalist from the beginning. The Communist Manifesto called on workers of the world to unite. Race, like religion and nationality, was seen as an impediment to the Marxist New World Order. Stalin preached "socialism in one country," and he stripped post-War East Germany of its wealth with the same enthusiasm that he stripped the European satellites thereafter. But this was done in the name of strengthening the headquarters of the world revolution. All proletarians could be saved through revolution; their class rivals would not survive it.

The National Socialists wanted the State to rule over the domestic economy, but it preserved the illusion of private ownership. There is no doubt that Hitler saw other states as sources of supply for Germany. His vision of domination outside of German-speaking areas was that of tribute-payment, not an integrated New World Order. But the German order was clearly salvationist. It promised a new mankind to Germans. It was Darwinist to the core, or more accurately, Galtonist. Francis Galton, Darwin’s cousin, believed in breeding for results. He called his system eugenics. The National Socialists were as committed to racial supremacy through breeding as the American Progressive movement was. Hitler’s reich copied the forced sterilization laws that had been pioneered in the United States two decades before, beginning in Indiana. The State as breeder was the image.

The International Socialists officially wanted the State to wither away, though no one ever explained how the State’s ownership of the means of production would accomplish this transformation. The State as planner was the preliminary image, followed by the image of corporate mankind which would cooperate because the source of original sin – private property – would be extirpated from men’s consciousness.

Both orders were salvationist. Both orders were statist. Both orders were Darwinist. Stalin’s promotion of Lysenko’s Lamarckian theories of the inheritance of acquired characteristics is evidence of his Darwinism, though not of twentieth-century scientific Darwinism. Both Hitler and Stalin dreamed of new men living in a New Order. Some men – Aryans or proletarians – would transcend the old humanity under the guidance of the modern scientific State. Creating this transcendent order would require the shedding of blood. Lots of blood.

Ironically, the Soviet empire fell with the least bloodshed in history: three civilians. It had shed the blood of tens of millions of its own people to create the new Soviet man, and it went out, not with a bang, but with a whimper. The organizers of the failed Communist coup in 1991 can best be described as frightened, drunken bureaucrats. They were new men in the same sense that Soviet architecture was new architecture.

The survivors today are the deal-doers. They are the men who believe that enough money will solve any problem. The gold standard limits this vision of solutions on demand, so they have placed their bets on the fractional reserve banking system. Since the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694, the Old Boy Network has spread the gospel of economic growth through central banking.

In the twentieth century, two institutions have become universal: central banking and the Rotary Club. You must search long and hard for any nation that doesn’t have both. But the world is not threatened by Rotary Club luncheons. It is now threatened by central banks.

The central bank rests on a premise: with enough fiat money (the carrot) to complement tax policy (the stick), wise planners can direct the evolution of the free market. What the politicians mess up the bankers and capitalists can fix. What the capitalists mess up, the politicians and bankers can fix. The monetary debate today is between those who want more discretionary power in the hands of the central banks vs. those who want the fiat money spigot to be turned on at a trickle and then either soldered or welded. The former have won the war; the latter have become the loyal opposition.

Central bankers do not trust central bankers. To create their New World Order of managed money and managed trade, the creators must gain agreement among the central banks. This has never been forthcoming. The national central bankers are loyal to their domestic interests, especially commercial banking interests, which they represent. They are unwilling to subordinate their nations’ interests to the interest of some vague international entity. So, the cry goes out from the New European Order, headquartered (if anywhere) in Basle: the Bank for International Settlements. The cry is familiar: "Central bankers of Europe, unite. You have nothing to lose but your exchange rate income."

The symbol of the New World Order in Europe is the much-promised European Monetary Unit (EMU), or Euro. The Euro is still only toddling. It exists mainly in bond market entries. But in 1999, it is to begin to walk. In 2005, it is to run. Toddlers fall down a lot. "Falling down" in central banking circles means declaring currency devaluations or revaluations: breaking with the previously agreed-upon fixed exchange rates. Floating rates are more like swimming. Central bankers hate to swim. These new men want to walk. They want to walk on water – frozen water without fluctuating national monetary and fiscal policies.

They intend to take their first steps in 1999: the enforced system of simultaneous transactions. Buy and sell in any European currency, and the transaction must be able to be reported in any other currency, no matter what nation you live in. The French businessman must be able to report his earnings in German marks or any other European Community currency.

To achieve the first stage of the goal, European commerce must be computerized. The software must be able to handle every transaction simultaneously in a dozen currencies. Such software does not exist. It must be created. The central bankers are adamant: it must be created, tested, and implemented one year from now. This cannot be done. The programmers keep telling the bankers this, and they keep ignoring them.

Meanwhile, the Millennium Bug walks steadily toward us, like the dreaded monster in a science fiction movie. But unlike the crowds in Godzilla vs. the Bank of Japan, the public goes about its business – its computerized business. The programmers have told the European bankers that they cannot fix the Millennium Bug and also create the Euro software in the time remaining. This is true. What is even more true is the fact that the Millennium Bug cannot be fixed by 2000, with or without the Euro. The Euro is a cooked goose, whether or not the programmers complete the project in 1999. It will not survive the bank runs of 1999 or the shut-down of 2000.

The bankers refuse to hear. Their timetable of the Year 2000 is more symbolic than real. The Euro must be walking steadily by 2000. If it isn’t, the central bankers’ plans to create a single European central bank and currency by 2005 will fail. Their dream of walking on water will sink in a turbulent sea, more like a tidal wave than a frozen lake.

And so it will. So will every other dream of the wise men. They have built their empire on the fractional reserve banking system, with the central banks as the guarantors and stabilizers. But that dream requires the operations of computers that are now suffering from a terminal disease.

When the public at last recognizes the Millennium Bug as something vastly more threatening than Godzilla, they will run, just as the crowds do in the Godzilla movies. They will run for the banks. Japanese depositors have already begun. This is even before computer problems reach critical mass psychologically for the public.

At that point, the lie of fractional reserve banking will be exposed all over the world. Not everyone can get his money out. His money is already out: in the illiquid projects of borrowers. The central bank can print money, though not enough to replace all bank deposits. It can create credit, though not enough to stem the tide of an international sell-off of credit-based assets. The guarantor cannot guarantee everything. Yet in a worldwide panic, it must if the system is to go on.

"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law" (Rom. 13:8). We are going to learn the painful truth of this verse over the next five years – and perhaps five decades. Those who are out of debt and in an economic position to show love to others in the form of aid will take leadership. The New World Order of Jesus Christ will remain, while the rival New World Orders will again fade away.

Copyright 1998, Institute for Christian Economics

P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711

Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics.

Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved.