I shrugged my shoulders, silently.

      "If America's economic disintegration continues the Russians may have cause to be afraid of in the future," said Steve. "Then they may act rashly, but not now."

      I nodded in agreement.

      "Tell me, what do you see on the economic front?" Steve asked. "You are an economist as much as I am, in the way we had talked about it before. You understand as well as I do that without love in society, there is no economy. So tell me: How much love do you see? Is there still some love left in society? And how much greed do you see? Greed and poverty corrupt society and destroy the foundation for its physical existence, which love would build. Is greed all that you can see? Or is there still some love left? So tell me Peter, how far has the pendulum swung towards greed, terror, and poverty, and away from love?"

      I told him that I saw a lot of evidence for both poles being represented. I told him that I still saw a lot of love in society, even while I saw a strong trend towards greed and poverty, which together threaten to rule the world some day.

      "There is your answer," said Steve. "Greed causes people to steal from each other's living, and as a consequence, people die inwardly as human beings and the economy disintegrates as a consequence. Poverty adds to the effect. It impels people to become greedy by the corruption of fear. If a people loose their Soul as human beings, they are bound to become fearful. People then become greedy out of fear that they won't survive in the long run. So they become corrupted. Yes, Peter, I agree, we see a lot of that happening now. We see the results of this trend getting worse bit by bit. The economies are beginning to collapse, and the financial system that represents them becomes more and more a hollow shell. But what do we see on the other side, Peter? Is there any love left in society that reflects the humanity of human beings? Is there any humanity left that powers the economies in which people enrich one-another's existence and their world and their civilization? Is that all gone?"

      "It's diminishing," I replied, "but there is a lot of it left."

      "So, there's your answer, Peter. Tell your President that he's not facing an acute economic crisis yet. Tell him that the Soviets see this in the same way. But they, like I do, see the trend. So tell your President that he still has time to repair the system. Tell him that he has the opportunity to correct what is leading up to a real crisis that threatens to be greater than anything he can imagine. Tell him that he can make history and become a great President if he is courageous and takes a stand for the truth. This means taking a stand for all humanity. That means scrapping the private world-financial system and building a comprehensive federal-credit system for the redevelopment of the nation, and by the same process the redevelopment of the world. Beyond that he needs to create a gold-standard type fixed-exchange-rate system for the world, modeled after the old Bretton Woods system that the USA stupidly trashed."

      "You want him to be staring all the greedy financial pirates in the eye and overrule them," I interrupted Steve. "Our President can't do this. He counts them as his fiends. They paid for his election. I think an honest and courageous person might be able do this, but not our President."

      Steve shook his head again and laughed. "You are wrong, Pete. You're concerned with cosmetic issues. The real issue is that our American President doesn't qualify for the task he's been given as is proven by his incompetence. He doesn't even know what is job is. This isn't about small-scale confrontations, Peter, or about his personal ambition to play King. This is about global leadership. This is about doing what needs to be done to save civilization and mankind from a Dark Age that few people, if any will survive. That's what's at stake. His job as President is to preside over a process of dialog, bringing all the best people of the nation and the world together to discover what is needed to resolve the current paradox that has become a crisis. And he has to do it within the guiding principles of the framework of the nation's Constitution, especially the General Welfare Principle. If you ask me, the challenge that he is facing, that the USA and mankind is facing, is way beyond his capability as King. However, if he were to act as a President, setting up a process of universal consultation within the framework of universal principles, this current little crisis wouldn't even have come to a head."

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Stories about War from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche