Before financial banks before interest, before centralized debt systems even came to be, we still had trade and barter and credit and loans and debts to pay in a more natural way.
Back then, people as today also, would come to need something. Whether it be more wheat because of a bad mistake they made in the seasonal grows or some natural even ruined their crops or anything like that. They would go to their fellow neighbors within their own communities or even distant tribes and ask for rations to support them until they can pay back what they borrowed if the lender had enough. And for the most part, the lenders who were able, did so with pride because it would mean if they were ever in trouble, others would help out. It was also a custom, built into their culture but stemming from a natural habit. The act to care for one another.
You see this act of trading built trust within every community because the strength of everyone's bond with each other was based on our relationship formed through our trades and barters. If people were selfish and never contributed during bad times, people remembered and when it came to the moment where the shoe was on the other foot, or when the tables were turned, vice-versa, uno-reverse card, mirrored, (ok get on with it already!) even if people gave pitty at the end, the previously selfish individual learned a lesson immediately.
Maybe.
The point is, it's also a habit built for survival in the natural world. It brings the world together while ago tests it's limits. Such is the human condition.
But then something happened. Somewhere down the line, people realized they needed a written language to categorize their stock and keep up with how much they had. Language was invented. Cuneiform. It was math. It was communication. It was power most of all. But it would take many years for people to realize the real power behind scribing. For those who could read and write would come to be the ones who wrote laws for the tribes and soon instead of verbal and symbolism being passed orally through memory from generation to generation, the writing helped pass and keep journal of history and events and so on. But more importantly to the point of this article, the creation of usury.
Someone, or a group of someone's, got the idea of taking this natural and culture habit of lending and added interest. Somehow, everyone was okay with it, until it wasn't anymore.
What happened?
I'll explain.
Somewhere down the line, lending stopped becoming about restoring balance and instead became about multiplying ownership. What was once a man er of just repaying back what was borrowed only, let's say a few tons of wheat was requested from one village to another, but then charged to pay it back in double, the village would have to work even harder to just pay it back and probably be lacking in doing so. So punishments were made and if you didn't like it then shame was used as a manipulation tactic or physical punishment or even they were confiscated of their belongings aka repossessions(banks call it repo for short Incase you didn't know). But you see this all was to hide the real scam and have you blaming yourself for not working hard enough. But at some point, the people catch on and fights, wars, public executions, tended to appear more when before none of this was even necessary. (Possibly. Human history is a huge mystery)
This isn't also including natural disasters and unfortunate events, I've abnormal dry seasons, lack of sunshine, floods, earthquakes, infestations, etc. That could also ruin the ability to pay back the loan plus usury(theft). Thus having to need to borrow more and more and more and more. To the point, where, it became impossible, and in order to pay back their debts, they were tricked into stealing from their neighboring tribes across the way. Mayhaps this is how "governments" came to be formed in ancient times. Cartels harvesting the people instead of the crops all to pay back their loans and have the others as collateral. And if they were good enough at it, they gained more power and status amongst themselves.
And little by little, people forgot the difference between helping someone and profiting from their desperation. It became something widely adopted and then eventually, to what we have today. But what we have today is even worse. Much worse.
Today we have people being born into a system of starting from origins of usury but taught that it is a necessity of civilization to prosper, because without it, it would make you a criminal and a thief or a bum on the street with no life. And that today is viewed as bad but honestly it's probably the better option because you are freed from continuing on with this system of indoctrinated robbery. It's bad for the soul bro.
Back then the reputation mattered between each other because it kept us together. Greed was shamed upon and had real consequences. People knew each other personally.
Today people are making their decisions like an algorithm, no one knows who controls what anymore, trust is faded, everything is taxed including the taxes of the taxes on top of interest, and if you don't pay it back it's bankruptcy and/or prison.
The mere act of helping your neighborhood is seen as threatening and manmade laws are enforced by the cartels to keep it at bay. Followed with propaganda and indoctrination that keeps you away from being connected with nature. Minds systematically programmed to keep the have-nots from publicly hanging the haves for what they have done.
What was once a custom that kept us together has been flipped upside down to keep us divided and conquered.
And despite all that, I'm thinking that ñerhaps the greatest trick usury ever pulled wasn't stealing wealth, but convincing humanity that exploitation was normal. And honestly, I don't even know if much of humanity remembers how to relate to each other outside of transactions anymore.
We have became so obsessed with ownership that we forgot stewardship. So obsessed with profit that we forgot balance. So obsessed with survival inside the system that we forgot to ask if the system itself was sick. Yet, the scary part is not that the system we have exists. The scary part is how many of us are unknowingly carrying this unnatural mentality inside ourselves now.
And if humanity normalized usury long ago, what else have we normalized without even realizing it?