From: Mixmaster <mixmaster@remail.obscura.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 00:07:42 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Clarifying the Language
Message-ID: <199711061550.HAA23134@sirius.infonex.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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TruthPastor wrote:
>Jim Burnes wrote:
>> On Wed, 5 Nov 1997, Anonymous wrote:
>> >   Churches, like governments, corporations, or any other organized
>> > entity, have some wonderful people in them, doing wonderful things.
>> > The problem, as always, is what our founding fathers realized--these
>> > types of organizations/structures tend to grow and attain power which
>> > is then used for the purpose of self-sustained growth (survival).
>> >   Humanity tends to evolve, while organized humanity tends to de-volve.
>> > Biped humans, walking upright, form organizations which move toward
>> > becoming quadrapeds dragging large clubs.
>
>> Ha!  This is pretty interesting.  Rather than the typical cypherpunk
>> approach of eliminating such inefficient and corrupting methods as
>> income taxation and tax exemption we are playing by their game.

Pathetic, isn't it?

>  Taxation and exemptions are, conceptually, no different than a
>tribal agreement that those who bring home the deer will share
>with those who guard the campsite, and that the shaman who keeps
>the evil spirits at bay has to do neither.

The important word in this sentence is "agreement".  If the American 
taxpayer does not agree with how his tax money is being used, does he not 
have the right to demand that it be used in an appropriate way?  If his 
demands go unanswered, does he not have the right to refuse to continue 
paying?  If the American taxpayer does not like substandard education, 
abortion, weapons manufacturing, destructive environmental legislation, and 
so forth, why should she be forced to pay for it?

The simple fact is that taxation in America has ceased to be an agreement, 
and has devolved into extortion with the threat of jail/forfeiture for 
"non-compliance".

>> The whole of [Orwell's] warning to society was that by systematically
>> altering the language, you alter the things that can be discussed.
>
>  I believe that half of the disagreements on the cypherpunks list,
>and the vast majority of disagreements in the world in general, are
>the result of disputes over semantics, rather than beliefs.

If one were to break down the anti-Income Tax argument to its most basic 
level, it would be that the government does not have the right to extort 
money from its citizens to promote agendas which are destructive of the 
citizens' persons and property.  Basic Common Sense (TM).

Nerthus

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