Lipton’s Journal/February 7, 1955/451

The world of commerce in the nineteenth century and before (capitalism in other words) being the total commitment to building a society, was built upon barter. But barter evolved into money, and money into credit, and credit into the extension of credit which is interest. But note what credit is: it is the social expression in commerce of the brotherhood of man (which ought to be said as the humanhood of humans (the man-womanhood of men-women). When we give credit, we are placing trust. No matter how abstract, no matter how socialized the process becomes, the loan of money is the social equivalent of trust which is why social people place so much emphasis and so much passion into trust, credit—why they say, “My word is my bond.” What they mean to say is “My bond is my word.” (And my word is my soul.)

That is why gangsters never forgive a double-cross, for the double-cross is an expression of a soul-need which ruptures the pitiful warped tortured sadistic but nonetheless functioning society gangsters have been able to elaborate. So: Practical advice: Keep your word with a gangster, keep your word when he expects you to break it, and he will be your friend for life. Perhaps there is a clue here for how to reach the homicidal psychopath. Naturally at a deeper level, the gangster will really hate you for life, but it is beneath the sort of consciousness which eventually erupts into action.