The Bankers’ Yoke: A Modern Conquest
Nine centuries ago, the Norman Conquest transformed England under what some historians call the “Norman Yoke” – a complete takeover that imposed foreign language, culture, and control structures upon the existing population. Today, we find ourselves under a remarkably similar system of domination: the Bankers’ Yoke.
“I don’t think people realise how the establishment became established. They simply stole land & property from the poor, surrounded themselves with weak minded sycophants for protection, gave themselves titles and have been wielding power ever since.”
Tony Benn
The Language of Control
Just as the Normans imposed their French upon Anglo-Saxon England, modern banking has colonized our vocabulary with its own specialized dialect. Words like “derivative,” “quantitative easing,” and “futures” have entered common discourse, yet remain deliberately obscure to most people. This linguistic colonization serves the same purpose it did in 1066 – to create a barrier between rulers and ruled, making the mechanisms of power incomprehensible to those subject to them.
Perhaps most insidiously, the bankers have redefined fundamental concepts. “Efficiency” now means profitable rather than functional. Public services that serve the common good but generate no profit are dismissed as “inefficient” – a linguistic sleight of hand that reframes social benefit as economic failure.
Modern Castles and Cathedrals
The Normans built castles to project military power and cathedrals to demonstrate divine authority. Today’s financial overlords construct their own monuments to dominance: the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf, sprawling shopping centers, sports and entertainment arenas, railway stations, and airports. The Arena in Leeds is even named for the bank that funded its construction. These structures serve the same psychological function as Norman architecture – to awe the population into submission while housing the mechanisms of control.
The Conquest of 2008
The financial crisis of 2008 marked not a failure of the banking system, but its ultimate triumph. Like medieval lords demanding tribute, the banks claimed their “bailouts” from governments worldwide – not as charity, but as rightful payment from conquered territories. This moment crystallized what had been building for decades: the banks had effectively crowned themselves as the new monarchs of the global order.
The New Feudalism
Under this system, most property eventually finds its way into bank ownership, then gets rented back to the population at premium rates – a perfect mirror of feudal land tenure. We’re told that 85 individuals control half the world’s wealth, making them the new nobility in this financial feudalism. The rest of us have become serfs, bound not to land but to debt.
Tribute and Subjugation
What we call “debt” is essentially tribute paid to these new kings. Individuals, organizations, and entire governments find themselves vassals in this system, perpetually owing allegiance through interest payments. The traditional tools of the loan shark – intimidation, legal manipulation, and systematic wealth extraction have been scaled up and legitimized through complex financial instruments.
The Fraud Made Legal
Modern banking has achieved what medieval rulers could only dream of: making their exploitation appear not just legal, but necessary. Through captured regulatory systems and compliant governments, practices that would be recognized as fraud in any other context have been sanctioned and systematised. Austerity becomes virtue, wealth concentration becomes efficiency, and public impoverishment becomes fiscal responsibility.
Resistance and Recognition
The parallels between Norman and banking conquest are not coincidental – they represent the same fundamental dynamic of domination imposing itself upon existing populations. Just as the Anglo-Saxons eventually recognized the Norman Yoke, we must acknowledge that we live under a similar system of control.
Understanding this historical parallel offers both warning and hope. The divine right of William and his successors founded by the Norman Yoke, despite its apparent permanence, was eventually thrown off. The bankers’ yoke, for all its sophistication, remains a human institution – and like all such institutions, it can be changed by human action.
The first step toward freedom is recognizing the nature of our chains. The bankers’ yoke may be made of derivatives and debt rather than iron and stone, but it binds us just as surely as any medieval serfdom. Only by seeing it clearly can we begin to imagine – and work toward, its overthrow.
The transformation from the Norman Yoke to the Bankers’ Yoke represents not progress, but the refinement of an ancient system of domination. Until we recognize this continuity, we remain trapped within it.
John A Smith
Notes
The Bankers Yoke
In the eleventh century the Norman occupation was known as the Norman Yoke
Language
Efficiency
Derivative
Futures
Castles and cathedrals
Canary Wharfe
Railway Stations
Shopping Centres
Arenas
For decades the big banks have waged a war of aggression on the general population of the world culminating in the coup of 2008 when the banks claimed their so-called “bailouts” from governments as a sort of tribute in honour of their conquest.
The banks have effectively made themselves Kings of the world.
As many people, organisations and governments owe tribute to these new Kings, this is called debt
The result being that most property ends up being confiscated by banks then to be rented out at a high rate of tribute
We’re told that the wealthiest 85 people in the world own half the world, they therefore control the rest
Language
For example, in the UK the vernacular of the local language has been replaced by bankers language, for example, the word inefficient is used to describe something that makes no financial profit, usually used to describe public services that are non profit making
The Bankers Yoke
The Norman Yoke
Take over, different language and culture
Occupation of existing control structure
The Bankers Yoke
The Bankers Yoke
Take over, different language and culture
Occupation of existing control structure
The Bankers Yoke
Language that no-one understands
Derivative
Quantitative Easing
Bankers Piggy Banks:
Castles and cathedrals
Shopping Centres
Arenas
Financial Centres – Canary Wharfe
Railway Stations and Airports
Wealth transfer
Aurerity
The Law
Fraud made legal
The Loan Shark
Feudalism: Serf / Peon regime
The Area in Leeds even has the banks name on it
Someone beat me to it
www.moneyandco.co.uk/blog/item/1756
Modern Mafia – gambling, prostitution, drugs, robbery, control, a piece of the action
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