“Ignorance of a law is not a valid justification for not fulfilling it.”
This is the basic principle of law, however with the existent laws this is impossible to fulfill because of their number and complexity. A person that really wants to know all the laws one is subject to in the duration of one's life would have to spend it entirely dedicated to study due to the countless number of legislations in vigor. And it is quite probable that one would not achieve this objective.
But the principal remains valid for certain laws of nature, which the human is equally subject to during his passage on Earth, as he is also a species in it, as so many others. The principal is valid because contrary to the laws of man these natural laws are very simple and clear. Nobody can disobey them under the allegation of ignorance because all that is needed is a minimum effort in the observation of them to be able to recognize them.
One of these basic laws is the one that deals with balance. We clearly observe its effects in places where man's influence has still not arrived. An ecosystem that has not been corrupted yet by destructive human action will always be in perfect balance. It will never present, for example, an accentuated disparity among the number of species found there. You will never see one of its members trying to destroy the ecosystem, seeking to obtain immediate advantages for itself. Neither will you find some species lacking what is necessary for its survival there, having to experience “material needs”. The beings that belong to an ecosystem give in one way or the other something for all, receiving in compensation what is necessary for its own subsistence, it is a continual balance between give and receive.
Even the species of the vegetable kingdom automatically obey this law of balance. From nature plants and trees receive nutrients from the soil and give it flowers and fruit in return. They use the carbonic gas from the atmosphere and give back oxygen.
But the humans behave in a different way. It is precisely because of their social organization that they should be a living example of unconditional obedience to the law of balance; yet they have despised it intentionally, in the most flippant self-presumption.
Due to its spiritual constitution, this species occupies a special place in nature. Its mission is to perfect nature in physical matter by elevating and ennobling it through the fulfillment of the effective laws; this is how it was planned.
However, this expectation was not fulfilled. All the other species continued obeying what they were expected to do instinctively, according to the natural laws. But man, the elevated spiritual being that should care for nature, gave no importance at all to these basic laws, laws that were in force before his appearance on Earth. He presumptuously placed himself above nature, as if he owed it no respect. In his inconceivable arrogance he anointed himself lord of Creation, while he did not even execute his duties as a simple integrant of Creation.
That is why now he assists in disbelief and perplexity the inevitable crumbling of all his false work, incautiously built on sand.
The entire human work was erected by ignorance and stubbornness on a sandy soil, inappropriate to construct any building. Man principally ignored the fundamental law of balance that is so basic, only firm soil can support any construction. It doesn't matter how well planned the construction is or how resistant the materials used are, or how good the engineers and architects are. If it is erected on sand, sooner or later it will have to fall.
And economic science is one of the many works engineered by the human intellect completely dissociated from this basic principal of balance.
Today we see in the majority of countries a frenzied, almost desperate effort, from the most esteemed specialists seeking to control the multiple economic indexes. With admirable zeal (we recognize) that they try to make this, absurdly complex and unstable economic machine that they have invented, work adequately, making frequent adjustments to the several control instruments at their disposition; however, with precarious results.
The numbers that translated the immense calamity that the world economy was submersed in at the end of the last century seemed unreal because of its gigantic size, and even so it continues to grow, as if it has come to life on its own. Everywhere there are increases in the disparity between production and consumption, between work and remuneration, between debts contracted and benefits generated. Macro and microeconomics are merging into frightening mega-chaos, where imbalance is the tonic in all sectors.
And amid all this disorder the illustrious economists stand out, fencing with each other in a not very gentlemanly like manner, each one trying to impose his revolutionary and exclusive solution of salvation.
Everyday we see the parade in the press of the most contradictory and contusing explanations on the causes and effects of exchange devaluation, inflationary control, public deficit, bank crisis, bankruptcy, speculative capital, fluctuation of interest rates, super valorized shares, growing unemployment and concentration of income, etc, etc.
All this confusion could have been avoided if, from the outset the necessary balance between giving and receiving were simply observed.
In reality, people already live in a continual exchange of values, however, without giving due importance to it. Their biggest mistake here – unforgivable in itself, - was neglecting the indispensable balance in this natural process of exchange.
With one's work one gives something to the world in which they live, in this case Earth, and for this they receive what is necessary for one's life here. First of all come food, clothes and dwelling. In natural sequence other complementary goods, always according to one's own contribution. Money is nothing other than an instrument, a means to facilitate the flow between giving and receiving in our civilized world. And everybody involved has the duty to maintain this flow in absolute equality, making sure that the scale-plates remain completely even.
This is the general picture of a harmonic collective action, is it too simple? Indeed it is, as everything is, that in fact possesses real value and therefore has not been infected by the intricate guidelines of the limited human intellect.
However, the following happened, like in so many other things that took place, man decided to “perfect” the natural law of balance. Through his limited understanding, fruit of his unstoppable and also already un-disguisable spiritual decadence, he imagined that he could live a more beautiful and happier life if he lowered one of the scale-plates in his favor. He wanted to receive more and more, giving less and less. And with the passing of the centuries this imbalance grew increasingly more, until arriving at the point where we find ourselves today, where money has become an end in itself, instead of a mere physical instrument for the carrying out of giving and receiving.
From this point on, the little that remained of the dignity and respect to one's fellow man, from this creature suffering from blind greed vanished once and for all, he started to want to take advantage in everything in order to obtain more money, not caring if he had to inflict damage upon his fellow man or not.
To obtain more money employees deceive their bosses, bosses explore their employees, fraudulent people study new schemes, speculators start rumors on the stock exchange, factories create cartels, banks become discounting houses, politicians sell votes, timber merchants cut down forests, nations fight each other for commercial interests. And everybody gets into debts that they cannot liquidate. They cheat, they rob, they kill, and they destroy and go to war only for money.
Greedy humanity twisted the commandment given it of keeping the balance in everything as much as it could; it lowered the scale-plates to its maximum in its own favor, in the illusion of conquering earthly happiness this way.
Nonetheless, what man did not imagine is that unlike human law, the laws of nature cannot be disobeyed without punishment. Yes, man managed to tip the scale-plates for a certain period of time, but now it returns to its original position in a violent manner throwing off into the distance everything that was accumulated in man's interior.
The impact this has on the economy has become evident through a tragedy of apocalyptic proportions, never seen before in human history.
Today, hundreds of millions of people live in absolute poverty, without any perspective of bettering their material conditions. The ones that have a job and still earn enough to live decently form one extensive legion of unhappy people, firmly convinced that life has been unjust to them by denying them material wealth. Instead of ennobling the world with spiritual and terrestrial values they only increase the amount of bad will, envy and distrust. But for the ones that already possess many resources, by in large almost exclusively use them to satisfy their own desires, without the slightest worry in preserving and bettering the well being of all.
Every year, every month, every day we see the calamity of world's economy increase, generating anguish, hopelessness and… insecurity. The pedestal of the idol money, raised by the many willing hands to a height that totally obscures any glimmer of spiritual life, is coming undone, falling to pieces above the heads of a now fearful and shocked humanity.
The unstable world economy provokes social unrest, crisis in governing, fear and, above all, widespread insecurity .
These are the fruit we are picking now, through the neglect of a simple law and at the same time so essential, that alone could guarantee total harmony in life on our much-disturbed planet.
Roberto C. P. Junior