30 Apr 2012

The Wizard of Oz and the economy

I didn't mention it in my earlier post, but Ellen Brown's book on "The Web of Debt" has a superb structure based on the classic American children's story "The Wizard of Oz". The book was written by L. Frank Baum and first published in 1900. But amazingly, it wasn't until 1964 that Harry Littlefield, a high school teacher proposed that the book was in fact an allegory on the 19th debate on monetary policy and the imposition of the gold standard.

Ellen Brown constructed her whole book around this idea. Each of the characters in the original story can be linked to real people and groups. While travelling to the Emerald City, Dorothy meets up with a scarecrow who represents the midwest farmers who were being bankrupted by excessive debt, a tinman who represents the industrial workers  dehumanized by industrialisation, and a cowardly lion who represents  William Jennings Bryan, who campained against the banking lobby during the presidential campaign of 1896. The wicked witches of the east and west represent the wealthy railroad and oil barons of the American West and the financial and banking interests of the eastern U.S.  The title of "Oz" comes from the fact that quantities of gold are measured in ounces (Oz.).

I found the whole thing absolutely fascinating, and it's quite amazing to think that L. Frank Baum could have kept the whole thing hidden.

But the crux of the story is the moment when the curtains are drawn back and Dorothy and her friends discover that the Wizard of Oz is phoney - it's just a frail old man who is pulling levers behind a screen.
Maybe we should realize that the world economy is currently being manipulated from behind a screen by a small group of people who have rigged the entire system in their favour. It is time to uncover this masquerade.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you Simon. An excellent discovery, most interesting …

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  2. Hi Michael,

    I must say that the allegory hidden in the Wizard of Oz is one the the most amazing discoveries I've ever heard of. And nobody noticed for 64 years!!

    Simon 

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