Does he mean me?

Yes, he does; that is, yes, I do.

Lots of you don't feel spoken to, and I think for two primary, but very different reasons. First, there are those who just don't get the debt-violence connection. And, second, there are those who don't think I'm talking to them.

Let's take the second group first: I'm talking to you. It's that simple. I'm talking to you because I'm talking to everybody. As George Carlin put it, you're here, you're guilty, end of story. Get over yourselves. You're involved, you're not immune. None of us are immune. If we're not actively playing the debt game, we're playing it indirectly. We support it because we don't understand it, we think we know better, but the fact of the matter is, hardly anybody really thinks about it because we think that's just the way things are. They're not. This is how we made them (or allowed them to be made). There's nothing natural about it. It's artificial, just like everything humans make is artificial.

So, now the other folks, the one's who don't get it yet ... here's the deal:

To me, the definition of violence is simple: it is the ability one has to have someone else conform to that person's will, when the person simply can't say "no" without repercussions to his/her well-being. Say you just got a job, but you can't walk to it nor can you take public transportation (because more often than not there isn't any). Now what? You need a car. Have the money? No. Answer: car loan. Do you have a choice? Not really, if it's up to you and you can't mooch off others. Great. Now you have a car, but the company decides it's closing shop and sending all the jobs to China. Now you have no job, therefore no money. Does the lending institution tell you not to worry about it, they'll just put the payments on hold and as soon as you're back on your feet again, you can pick up where you left off? I doubt it. They want their money, they want it now, and if you don't pay it, they'll send some thuggy looking individual to intimidate you into putting up the cash or simply taking back your car, by force, if necessary. That's violence folks, and the fact that they can do that without the slightest hesitation, without fear of the slightest sanction, they exercise violence ... against you. It may be psychological, it may be potential, or it may even be physical. You're in debt, you're subject to that violence.

You don't count. Your circumstances don't count. Nothing counts but the money you owe. And "they" can get it, one way or the other, by force, if necessary, and you have not recourse whatsoever. If that's not violence, I don't know what is.