"Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul." -- Max Ehrmann
The Zen of Tax, That $600 Bribe, And the Enslavement of America
by Nicole
Two thousand years ago, a Roman Senator suggested that all slaves wear white armbands to better identify them.
“No,” said a wiser Senator. “If they see how many of them there are, they may revolt.”
There’s an interesting video going around the internet calling for an international day of protest to coincide with tax day on April 15 (if player fails to load click HERE to view). In it, the filmmakers cite the IRS and the Federal Reserve System as being enemies of the people, in cahoots with corporate America to keep the masses enslaved.
Portfolio.com illustrates this point graphically (click HERE to view). In 1970, the average CEO earned 28 times more than the average worker. Twenty-five years on, despite much talk of “progress,” U.S. CEOs were paid 465 times more than the average worker. Workers such as the striking writers in Hollywood and the protesting tomato pickers in Florida are one the frontlines of this ideological battle (see story).
But where does the IRS and the Federal Reserve System fall into all this. Paying taxes per se, is not a bad thing. Indeed it should be encouraged. Taxes fund vital infrastructure for the betterment of all. Essentially paying taxes are a spiritual and moral duty. They’re a community tithe, and a mechanism for each individual in a society to essentially “love thy neighbor.” Hell, I’d even pay more, if it meant we could get Universal Healthcare to take care of all those in need. In the widest sense of the word, it’s the Christian thing to do.
Where our tax system breaks down, is that it’s part of a system that is so corrupt, that our money gets diverted from the places it should morally and ethically go. Instead our hard earned tax dollars pay for corporate welfare, which is mostly paid to companies who are the least in need. It pays for roads and bridges that go to nowhere. It goes to companies with insider connections who score no-bid government contracts. It gets lost by the billion, and by the palette load, in far off countries. And it pays for obscene amounts of interest paid to world bankers to fund our even more obscene and out of control national debt.
As for the Federal Reserve System, clearly it is a little strange that an institution that is so key to instigating, making and enforcing our government’s financial policy is only a quasi-public (a part private, part government) system. Though too secretive and complex for most, including me, to understand, clearly having private corporations at the heart of such a public institution opens our system up to further abuse, especially while we have a president who’s too busy planning his own clean escape, pushing through legislation via the back door to pardon himself of war crimes he’s yet to be officially accused of, to keep his eyes on the balls we appointed him to watch over on our behalf in the first place.
So while I’m not advocating a general strike, withdrawing money from banks (we don’t need a domestic Northern Rock-like credit crisis), or supporting tax dissent, as this video suggests, I do like the idea of wearing a white band on April 15th to express our displeasure to our leaders in a way I’m sure Ghandi or the Dalai Lama would approve. Now the election season is upon us, don’t get distracted by talk of another tax rebate; it’s just a $600-$800 bribe we’re being encouraged (read brainwashed) to use to “kick start” the economy with, by sending it right back to the very corporations that are dragging our country down.
Instead, as the housing and stock markets tank, not only putting our todays, but our tomorrows in jeopardy too, focus on the real issues. Support those who have your interests at heart. Support those who promise to support you. Support those who say no to institutionalized greed. And support those who are as passionate and angry about it as you should be, after all making sure our tax dollars go to the places and people who need it most is the spiritual thing to do.
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