Inquisition Resurgent

As Cayetano Ripoll slowly choked to death on the Spanish scaffold, he would have been unaware that he was the last to suffer that fate at the hands of the Inquisition. They had demanded he be burned at the stake. As a compromise he was hanged, a slow death compared with the recently mandated garrote.

Ripoll's crime was to have taught Deism, that the existence of god could be proven by observation and logic rather that revelation. According to the Catholic Church, that was heresy and heretics must be burned at the stake. It was not just a belief in logic and observation that was deadly. Giordano Bruno a contemporary of Galileo was burned at the stake in 1600 for his denial that the earth was the centre of the universe. Galileo believed that too, but his powerful friends saved him from the stake. He spent his last years under house arrest. Over the centuries, the Inquisition and other 'Religious and Political' purity police have tortured and murdered those who refused to accept their diktats. Everything from denying the earth is flat to wine becoming blood. From denying divinity and the divine right of monarchs to questioning the party doctrine have resulted in million of deaths.

The twentieth century was awash with the crimes of those who killed because of the certainty of their, false, beliefs and is redeemed only by the countless millions who defied their persecutors. As the twenty-first century dawned one hoped that humanity had finally grown up. That with adults in charge, logic and observation would lead to rational debate and a better world.

Sadly, man seems incapable of managing without irrational belief. Even beliefs that defy logic and are incapable of justification, except by the time honoured method of silencing those who disagree. From the EU to Putin's belief in the restoration of the USSR, mediaeval Imperialism trumps history and common sense. Those who disagree were bombed, as in Ukraine or vilified as in the UK. Additionally there is a new religion. Net Zero. Research funding is available to 'prove' that climates are caused by mankind. Precious little, if any, is available for research into climate as a natural causation of weather. It is now obligatory for all to say, "I'm not a climate change denier." In an echo of "I don't deny revelation." There are a few who deny the orthodox position. They advance cogent, well researched scientific fact based 'proof' that net zero is wrong. No matter, they like those who believe in democracy are dismissed as idiots, scorned by an ignorance that is incapable of accepting real science. An ignorance that seems intent on condemning the world to avoidable hunger and disease.

In support of the new religion we have the unlikely emergence of banks playing the role of Inquisitor and executioner. Dare to support democracy, ask for a proper debate on climate or deny that every white person is, alone among all the world's people, born in sin. A sin that can never be expunged. Point out that Africans sold African to Arabs who captured more and sold them and you really are denying that the world is flat. Deny that a woman can have a penis. Aver that biological sex is a fact. For any or all of these 'Thought' crimes you may have your bank account cancelled. In this plastic world having no bank account means you cannot receive or pay money. You cannot open an account for utilities pay tax or buy a coffee in Costa. You are dead. You have been strangled to death, just like Ripoll and for the same reason. The decline of cash and increasing demands for a fully digitised monetary system spell the end of a world most of us wish to inhabit. In the name of progress we will have leapt backwards into a world policed by bigots. Centuries of struggle to advance the human condition and democracy will be wiped out.

Banks should focus on their role, not pander to the latest fad theory. Most of them were bailed out by the taxpayer and we deserve better. We certainly deserve a non woke bank that does not use every excuse to gouge its customers. Cash ought to be king. Use it or lose it!