I’ve been informed, in no uncertain terms, that I need to blog more. I’d like to claim that I’m too busy, rather than too lazy, but the reality is that I have the motivation of a doped up sloth at the moment. Thus, to appease my reader(s?), I though I’d put pen to paper* and write something.
I’m fortunate enough to have friends who link me to interesting articles and videos on a regular basis, two of which have really caught my attention in the last few days. The videos are very clear, and somewhat self-explanatory, which is something that appeals to my innate laziness. It’s not immediately apparent that the themes of these two very different videos are at all related, yet upon some closer inspection, they are making the same point in two different ways.
The first video is entitled, “George Ought To Help”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGMQZEIXBMs]
This nicely animated cartoon from Redshift Media asks us to consider whether it is acceptable to use physical force to force someone else to do what we perceive to be the right thing. It’s a powerful argument**, and one to which I cannot conceive of a retort. This article, however, is not about the morality of wealth redistribution, but rather about what happens in the last part of the video. George receives a bill from the State and the narrator comments,
“Almost everyone pays the bills without protest. They know the Agents [of the State] are prepared to use as much force as necessary to overpower you if you resist.”
This is the point at which many people, to whom I have explained this very concept, begin to switch off. They don’t believe that they really have anything to fear from the State, especially in a democratic, peaceful nation such as New Zealand. The police are kind people who are just trying to protect us. Nobody will be actually hurt for not paying their taxes. Don’t be silly!
This is where the second video comes in. I’ll be honest, this video disturbed me more than almost anything I’ve seen in years.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FBlLoIcKH0]
I’m not an expert in criminal law***, but I am 100% confident that the Police acted entirely illegally. It will be a travesty if they are not indicted for breach of oath, assault causing grievous bodily harm and kidnapping. They had no warrant, they were not allowed to be on his property. It really is that simple.
This second video shows the reality of what happens to people who do stand up to the State: beaten and dragged away in chains. This is what the first video is talking about. When you vote for more State involvement, and greater State powers, you are voting for this. When you vote to increase taxes on The Rich™, you are voting for this. State power is by its very nature a coercive power. It is backed by force, force which is used regularly to beat people into line. Sometimes, there is a camera to record and mitigate the damage. Most times, there is not.
The State Is Not Your Friend
* I’m aware that this is a digital format, but there’s no equivalently eloquent expression for word processing. Our generation has no class.
** On this blog, powerful arguments will indeed be talked about.
*** Though I do have a degree in Law.
wonder what resulted from that 2nd vid, pretty brutal. I am interested though in your point about “When you vote to increase taxes on The Rich™, you are voting for this” can you elaborate on this a bit more for me please. however, the rest of the blog and issues raised i tend to agree with.
Hi Ham,
I probably should have written this into the post, but c’est la vie. There are two main reasons why I wrote that line.
1. When the State taxes people, it is essentially saying that their property does not belong to them – that it can be taken by others, by force, for any purpose that those others deem important. When you vote to have agents of the State violate people’s right to private property, and you remove the owner’s right to defend his property, then you automatically create a situation where the State feels it can trespass upon privately owned land, for whatever reasons they choose, unlawfully interfere with the private actions of citizens and use force on any who refuse to comply. The logic is precisely the same, namely:
The State can violate your right to private property for its own purpose -> Resistance to this violation is met with force.
2. Taxation is the lifeblood of the State. Without it, the State is powerless to effect the kind of breach that we see in the second video. More taxation necessitates an increase in the apparatus of the State to both collect (steal) those taxes and to spend them as it sees fit. Taxation, both in concept and in practice, vastly skews the balance of power in favour of the State.
Let’s take the United States, for example. New York has one of the worst reported rates of misuse of police power, and New Hampshire has the best (afaik). New York is one of the most taxed states in the Union. new Hampshire has no state income or sales tax.
TL;DR – Larger State = More Abuses of Power