Put up or shut up

Time to put up or shut up. In my last commentary, I ragged on Americans mercilessly, calling us gutless blowhards and slaves because we are afraid to confront our own government. I don't think any honest citizen could dispute the truth of what I said, but I don't like to criticize without some sort of solution.

Nothing I'll suggest will be very easy or safe. Our governments at various levels, are powerful and ruthless. Keep reminding yourself that they are supposed to be protecting our individual rights, but in fact are doing quite the opposite. They are supposed to be our servants, but in fact we are slaves to them, and government is very good at protecting itself, as all large systems are.

Let me add some perspective to the issue. The federal budget is about 2.7 trillion dollars, which is $85,616 per SECOND. There are about 150 million working adults in the U.S. That means that the federal government is costing each working adult $18,000 each year. I know... you're protesting that you don't pay that much in taxes. Most of the taxes are hidden from view. The price of every product we buy has numerous embedded taxes that force those prices up. We are paying that much, and that's just the FEDERAL government. If you add in state and local governments, it's in the neighborhood of twice that much.

Can you even begin to imagine what our world might be like without those taxes?

My point is... it's a problem that is certainly worthy of our time and effort. Even if you live luxuriously on the leftovers, those numbers should still be enough to make you angry... especially since most of that money is WASTED. It costs a bundle just to COLLECT taxes. Hundreds of thousands of government employees, making good salaries, creating thousands of tons of paperwork, yada, yada.

I know lots of people who will drive to distant stores to save a dime, or will hassle a car dealer to save a hundred bucks, or dicker with everyone to save a little money... all the while just forking over half of everything they earn... in taxes. Most of us don't get anything we want in return for all that money, but even worse, our taxes are being spent on stuff we abhor, like the stupid war in Iraq.

What can we do to stop it... or even slow it down?

STOP THE FUNDING
There are hundreds of ways to reduce your taxes, some perfectly legal, some not so legal, and others very illegal. There are plenty of books and websites covering that whole area, and it all depends on your own personal situation. I've met a lot of people who just don't file a return. If you have a job with paycheck tax withholding, that probably isn't going to work, but there are still a great many ways to reduce taxes. Doing your own taxes can be a very creative endeavor. Taxes are so complex that you don't know what you might find. During one year of self-employment, I paid in no taxes during the year, and then got a "refund", thanks to the earned income credit. That wasn't the government's intent, but there it was, legal as hell. I maximized my refund by reducing my deductions to raise my taxable income to the top of the earned income limit.

Seek out ways to trade with others individually, on a cash basis, or actually trading services with no money exchanging hands.

Just to encourage you... the IRS audits less than 1% of the returns. A study in 2001 estimated that taxpayers failed to pay $290 billion they "owed", so you will have lots of company.

ATTITUDE
I'm inclined to think this is the most promising way to reduce the impact of government on our lives. We need to actually think of government as our enemy, because that is precisely what it has become. It's the big ugly dog that roams our block, making us nervous and crapping in our yard. Many of us have deluded ourselves into thinking of the dog as protecting us from other dogs, so we fearfully choose to placate the big dog with treats. That doesn't work with big bad dogs, and it doesn't work with government. In both cases, we end up as willing slaves to the dog.

We need to remind ourselves constantly that government is there to provide services for us, not the reverse. When you find yourself forced to face off with government... getting licenses, dealing with the cops, attending city meetings, etc., break out your best pain-in-the-ass mode and deal with them as the public servants they're supposed to be. All too often, we are so anxious to be done with those people that we encourage them to overlord.

Our attitude toward government employees, of any kind, at any level, should be... you're not my personal enemy, but you're working for the enemy, and you deserve no respect from me. If you want to be treated as my equal, go get a job working somewhere that gives me a choice of whether or not I deal with you. When you're being forced into what is usually a miserable situation, do your part to make sure that it's miserable for the government employees too. Maybe that will encourage them to go get a real job instead... one in which they can face the public in a mutually-voluntary position.

Remember who is supposed to be in charge.

STOP FALLING FOR THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS SCAM
The people who really drive me nuts are the ones who complain about government and then turn around and vote for or send money to one of the two old parties. The ONLY way you can maintain the attitude that one is "better" or "not as bad" as the other is by listening to and buying into propaganda from one party or the other. It really is like choosing between Hitler and Stalin and somehow convincing yourself that you've made a rational choice.

LEND YOUR SUPPORT
There are a great many organizations trying their damndest to restrict the growth and destructiveness of government. These are groups that survive and succeed on voluntary contributions from people who CARE. If you care, and you damned sure should, send your money and/or volunteer your time. One day soon, I'll post another list of some of those organizations. In the meantime, check out the list I posted in November of 2004.

A Nation of gutless blowhards

In my previous commentary, I asked "When does enough finally become ENOUGH?" and spur Americans to finally take action. I closed with:

All of this begs the question... how can we effectively regain control over our own government? Are there actions that enough people can realistically take that can have a real and relatively quick result? I think there are, if enough of us can, with real conviction, stand up and say "Enough is ENOUGH!"... and mean it. My next commentary will be somewhat radical.

As I wrote the phrase "somewhat radical", I had not decided what I meant in specific terms. I have no desire to go to prison, nor do I wish for others who might follow my advice to go there. That, despite the fact that all of us SHOULD BE IN PRISON, as a matter of principle, as perfectly expressed by Henry David Thoreau in "Civil Disobedience" in 1849 :

Under a government, which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. IT makes it worse.Wise, thought-provoking and challenging words... indeed a condemnation of what we have already allowed to happen. We ARE afraid of our own government. We ARE afraid to challenge it directly and personally, even though that government was established specifically to protect our individual rights, with provision for us to "alter or abolish" said government if necessary.

Our ancestors fought to give us freedom and the means to keep it. Generation after generation since then, we have feebly allowed it to change us into fearful, willing slaves. Even the serfs of the Middle Ages didn't pay nearly as much for "benevolent governance" as we do. We allow, even encourage, our young people to fight and die in the name of "freedom" for others while we cringe in fear of our OWN government, most of us unwilling even to raise a VOICE in defense of ourselves.

WE ARE WHIPPED. All of us... from the rabid, macho phoners of talk radio, to the tough-talking sports fans, to those guzzling beer while cheering on "survivors" or "ultimate fighters", or even the bad-ass militia folks... we are ALL afraid to take on our own government. We willingly play the annual "send half of what you make" tax game. We turn our heads (or even help justify the offense) when our government extends its oppression over us. We've bought into the polarized two-party trap, accepting that slavery is OK if "our" slaver does it, rather than that evil "other" slaver.

I don't give a damn how comfortable your life is... or how unthreatened you may feel... if you are afraid to confront your own government, you ARE without question a SLAVE too. You are completely at your government's mercy, subject to its unpredictable whim.

How can we be willing to enlist or support armed conflict abroad, in the name of abstract freedom for people we don't know, but still be unwilling to lift a hand in support of our OWN freedom right here? The real threat to our freedoms is not Muslim terrorists, it's our own government, and we're accepting it like a nation of SHEEP.

A well-known American gave us these inspiring lines:

Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens
When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Thoreau? Martin Luther King? Jefferson? Washington?
Hell no... those lines are from our current elected President, in his 2nd inaugural address, speaking to the rest of the world, but clearly NOT to his "fellow Americans". The bald-faced, unabashed hypocrisy. Our government will help others fight for their liberty from their government, now that we've turned our own citizens into willing slaves? Hitler was never bolder and more full of it than that, and it's not new with the current administration... we've been accepting it for a long time.

When we "stand for liberty" or "choose to defend our freedom as citizens", who are we standing AGAINST, who are we defending it FROM? Foreign terrorists? Foreign governments? Hell no... we haven't lost any freedom to foreigners, unless you count the loss of freedom imposed by OUR GOVERNMENT and blamed on foreign threats... a fear-mongering excuse to further pacify American citizens.

Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall and Luftwaffe-Chief understood this governmental tactic all too clearly:

...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country."

If you think I'm exaggerating the extent to which we are whipped by our government, just go attend your local city council meeting. Watch the few meek citizens sit quietly and patiently for a chance to speak at the throne of our local officials, who will schedule any citizen input at the end of the meeting, after the ritualistic awards to retiring employees, or fake discussion of questions that will be referred back to staff or postponed until after more study. Council "chambers" are even designed to make it unmistakable that you, as a citizen, are a barely-tolerated supplicant at the feet of your leaders.

Every year that goes by, the task facing the American people... the task of regaining control over our own government... becomes more difficult. Government grows continually, in size, cost, power, and oppressiveness. The thought of revolting against, or even slowing down our government is a daunting one. There are oppressed people all over the world, dominated by their governments, but none of them faces a government with the power of ours.

Make no mistake... I am not much less guilty than the worst of you. I've sat in meetings, furious at the way citizens are talked down to and stalled with political mumbo-jumbo, and I didn't speak out.

Talk (and writing) is not enough. In my next article, I want to explore how we can at least BEGIN to exert some influence over our government... at least get them to pay attention to us.