Lawsonomy

Lawsonomy, the Direct Credits Society, or Lawsonian Religion, is a rather complex ideology that is economically center-left, culturally left, populist, authoritarian, and focused on pseudoscience. Lawsonomy combines religion, economics, and 'science' (whatever Lawsonomy dictates as scientific fact and usually not actual science). It is based on a following and adherence to "natural laws" while its followers mimicked a sort of military with matching uniforms and internal structure. A main point is that Lawsonomy sees that banks are the root cause of all economic problems and fears because banks are the oppressors of both Capital and  Labor. Lawsonomy also encourages followers to educate themselves at one of the many Lawsonian colleges to reach the level of Knowledgian, it only takes a mere 30 years!

History
Lawsonomy was started by Alfred Lawson during the 1920s and focused on Lawson's pseudoscientific findings about suction and pressure. However, in response to the Great Depression Lawson called up the creation of "The Direct Credit Society". Due to populist rhetoric and hate for banks that arose during this time, thousands flocked to Lawsonomy for answers in the mid-1930s from the east coast to the west coast and everywhere in between. Lawsonomy's own newspaper, The Benefactor, claimed to be over 6 million in circulation across the United States, but then again it was Lawsonomy's own newspaper stating this.

Lawsonomy was met with growing criticism by the late 1930s, sounding like rants of an eccentric person who lacked knowledge himself. With Nazism growing in Germany at this time, many were turned off by the groups' militaristic demeanor and even prompted the FBI to investigate the group, thinking they were a version of the  Silver Shirts (the American Fascist group at the time). Despite protests from Lawsonomists stating their dislike of Nazism and espousing no racist or fascist beliefs, followers kept decreasing.

Once WWII had started and ended, people lost interest in Lawsonomy as a whole. The United States was now bountiful in its economy and trust in the banks was restored (for the most part). Now reduced to the few members it had in the late 1940s, Lawsonomy tried to revitalize itself by starting up Lawsonian colleges and universities that offered a 30-year degree program. A few controversies later, like selling military surplus items for an exceptionally high profit, the colleges lost their tax-exempt status and were forced to decrease in numbers, shrinking the follower size yet again.

Despite claiming to find that there were six dimensions, energy wasn't real, and the secret to living 200 years old, Lawsonomy's founder, Alfred Lawson, passed away in 1954 at the age of 85. The most devout of his followers still stayed in what was left of the Lawsonian universities, a barn, and wished to continue their 30-year degree programs to become Knowledgians like their late teacher had wished them to do.

Today, only a few straggling churches may still be following the teachings of Lawsonomy, and only the very lucky few had the honor of becoming a Knowledgian.

Foundational Beliefs
Lawsonomy proposes ten basic principles to insure a new freedom for the people of the U.S.A. (with hopes of spreading globally once everyone understands it by the year 2000. Whoops.):


 * 1) Abolish interest.
 * 2) Capitalism without Financialism.
 * 3) No stock market, no banks, no financiers.
 * 4) Congressional control of money and credit.
 * 5) Money would be loaned by the government as it acts as a trustee with no charges.
 * 6) Utilization of the Lawson Money System.
 * 7) A direct credit system where all money is owned, controlled and operated by the people themselves.
 * 8) Money would have no value, except as a unit of the value of land, products, or labor. Only a true Knowledgian who has knowledge of Lawsonian Physics could understand this.
 * 9) Direct payment in proportion to the amount of work an individual did.
 * 10) Direct Credits for everybody.
 * 11) Everyone, no matter who they are, would be involved in Direct Credits, as mentioned in principle 4.
 * 12) No foreign interference in the U.S.A.
 * 13) Freedom of spiritual worship.
 * 14) General freedom of expression.
 * 15) Compulsory arbitration.
 * 16) Rather than going to court, both parties must agree and submit a dispute to a private arbitrator who makes a binding decision on the dispute. An arbitrator is usually chosen based on their specific experience in a particular field that would be involved in the dispute.
 * 17) The abolishment of banks
 * 18) abolishment of loans (unless its the government)
 * 19) universal healthcare
 * 20) vegetarianism (believing that it would make you live over 200 years)
 * 21) no books other than ones written by the ideology's founder
 * 22) and rejection of the concept of 'Energy' (because obviously everything is run by suction [female] and pressure [male], not currents dumbass).

Personality and Behaviour
Lawsonomy sees himself as a prophet, or as he describes himself: "[A] new teacher with advanced intellectual equipment that only appears once about every two thousand years to lead the people." Yet, Lawsonomy is rather dim-witted, believing only information he himself creates and has little to no actual knowledge of anything, besides flying planes. He likes planes.

How to Draw
Lawson_flag.svg
 * 1) Draw a ball,
 * 2) Fill it with white,
 * 3) In the centre, draw a gray Z-zig-zag with a swirl coming out of the bottom,
 * 4) Draw an aviator's hat with goggles on top of the ball's head,
 * 5) Add two dunce eyes and you're done!

Friends

 * [[File:Vegarch.png]] Veganarchism - We both will certainly live to be over 200 years old! Right?
 * [[File:Catheo.png]] Catholic Theocracy - Let the Knowledgians trust God with you, together, with the Natural Laws.
 * [[File:Socauth.png]] Social Authoritarianism - Help the people with a little socialism, but make sure we don't get rid of capitalism itself. Also all books not made by Lawson must be banned.
 * [[File:Polpot.png]] Pol Potism - Fellow bank-hating kakistocrat.
 * [[File:NatProg-0.png]] Bull Moose Progressivism - Bust them trusts dad!

Frenemies

 * [[File:Strasser.png]] Strasserism - No banks around us, eh? But your association with [[File:Nazi.png]] him is worrisome...

Enemies

 * [[File:Nazi.png]] National Socialism and [[File:SL.png]] Silver Legionism - I hate that I was compared to you just because of our uniforms. I hope you rot, you racist scumbag.
 * [[File:Ego.png]] Anarcho-Egoism & [[File:Anin.png]] Anarcho-Individualism - Stop being so self centered and buy my 50 books!

Literature

 * Lawsonomy Volume 1 by Alfred Lawson
 * Lawsonomy Volume 2: Mentality by Alfred Lawson
 * Lawsonomy Volume 3: The Almighty by Alfred Lawson
 * Zig-Zag-and-Swirl: Alfred W. Lawson's Quest for Greatness by Lyell D. Henry

Wikipedia

 * Alfred Lawson

Websites

 * lawsonomy.org
 * lawsonsprogress.com

Articles

 * Lawsonomy on OnMilwaukee
 * Mission Implausible on the Chicago Reader
 * Fantastically Wrong on Wired
 * America’s Commercial Airline Inventor Also Founded a Bizarre Cult on History Collection

Online Communities

 * Lawsonomy on Facebook
 * Lawsonomy on Tumblr