Thoreau Set The Moral Standard
Genocide And Nuclear Threats Violate It
Henry Thoreau set the moral standard on whether a citizen had an obligation to withhold payment of federal income tax and go to jail in his famous essay, see:
Thoreau could not pay his taxes because his money would support the federal government’s policies on slavery and the invasion of and imperial war on Mexico.
Thoreau wrote:
If one were to tell me that this were a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probably that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. … But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun, and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact, that the country so over-run is not our own, but ours is the invading army.
The United States government currently is replicating similar moral atrocities in the Ukraine proxy war, the dirty war on Syria (and others), and the support of Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.
Similarly, the Biden administration has engaged in warmongering and gunboat diplomacy on Taiwan and China.
The US Congress is appropriating hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on war.
Nuclear armageddon is on the table.
Thus, the case for taxpayer revolt and rebellion is well beyond and far more egregious than Thoreau’s historical origins.
Today, I filed my taxes and pledged to pay on line at some future point.
I hoped that this might be part of the tax revolt movement and send a signal to IRS and the federal government.
But, first of all, my tiny tax burden will have no impact and to be honest, if push comes to shove, I’m willing to pay late fees but I am a coward and am not willing to go to jail, even for Thoreau’s brief incarceration. Been there and done that, and just one night in jail is enough to drive a man insane.
I am so sickened by my government and I’m not sure what else to do, but starving the military beast is clearly justified and necessary.
When the government supports genocide in my name and with my tax dollars, in principle I’m with Hannah Arendt:
As Hannah Arendt wrote in “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” the only morally reliable people are not those who say “this is wrong” or “this should not be done,” but those who say “I can’t.” They know that as Immanuel Kant wrote: “If justice perishes, human life on earth has lost its meaning.” And this means that, like Socrates, we must come to a place where it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong. We must at once see and act, and given what it means to see, this will require the surmounting of despair, not by reason, but by faith.
What I lack is the courage of my convictions (in terms of going to jail).