The banks and companies that actually own the land that the tenant farmers farm were mentioned in the fourth chapter, but in an insightful way that made me glad that I had read this book.
As the farmers continue to become more and more confused as to why they are being kicked off the land, the landowners mention something odd. When the statement is given a closer look, I think everyone could agree with it:
"But--you see, a bank or a company can't do that, because those creatures don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but it is so. It is just so."
Later on, this is mentioned by the landowners:
"We're sorry. It's not us. It's the monster. The bank isn't like a man.
Yes, but the bank is only made of men.
No, you're wrong there--quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it."
It's true, isn't it? And it's kind of scary to think about. How many decisions do we make that are based on the demands of the bank? And how often are those decisions ones that are beneficial or add to our own enjoyment of life, or even to just us living? It's as if the bank controls everything about us. We are slaves to money and capitalism, and frankly, it scares me to know how limited my "freedom" is. Business is getting too big, I think, but it seems impossible to destroy this monster, doesn't it? I wish we could, for our own sakes.
... That was pretty cryptic. Don't ask me where that came from.
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