The Good Funding the Evil
By Larken Rose
[Reprinted with
permission from THE MOST DANGEROUS
SUPERSTITION by Larken Rose pp 87-92 (2011). Available from
Box 653, Huntington, PA 19006 or amazon.com or by visiting http://www.larkenrose.com/store.html ]
Even if an individual is never personally victimized by
“law enforcement,” never has a run-in with the police,
and sees little if any direct impact by “government” upon
his day-to-day life, the myth of “authority” still has a
dramatic impact, not only on his own life but also on how
his existence affects the world around him. For example,
the millions of compliant subjects who feel an obligation
to surrender a portion of what they earn to the state, to
pay their “fair share” of “taxes,” continually fund all
manner of endeavors and activities which those people
would not otherwise fund–which almost no one would
otherwise fund, and which therefore would not otherwise
exist. By way of “taxes,” those claiming to be
“government” confiscate an almost incomprehensible
amount of time and effort from millions of victims and
convert it into fuel for the agenda of the ruling class.
To wit, millions of people who oppose war are compelled
to fund it via “taxation.” The product of their time and
effort is used to make possible something they morally
oppose.
The same is true of state-controlled wealth redistribution
programs (e.g., “welfare”), Ponzi schemes
(e.g., “Social Security”), the so-called “war on drugs,”
and so on. Most of the programs of “government” would
not exist if not for the belief among the general population
in a moral obligation to pay one’s “taxes.” Even
“government” programs purported to have noble goals–
such as protecting the public and helping the poor–
become bloated, inefficient and corrupt monstrosities,
which almost no one would willingly support if there
was no “law” requiring them to do so.
In addition to the waste, corruption, and destructive
things which “government” does with the wealth it
confiscates, there is also the less obvious issue of what
the people would have done with their money otherwise.
As “government” takes the wealth of the producers to
serve its own purposes, it also deprives the producers of
the ability to further their own goals. Someone who
surrenders $1,000 in “taxes” to the ruling class may not
only be funding a war he morally opposes, but he is also
being deprived of the ability to put $1,000 into savings,
or donate $1,000 to some charity he considers worthwhile,
or pay someone $1,000 to do some landscaping
work. So the damage done by the myth of “authority” is
twofold: it forces people to fund things that they do not
believe are good for themselves or society, while
simultaneously preventing them from funding things that
they do view as worthwhile. In other words, subservience
to “authority” causes people to act in a manner
which is, to one extent or another, directly opposed to
their own priorities and values.
Even the people who imagine that their “tax” dollars
are doing good by building roads, helping the poor,
paying for police, and so on, would almost certainly not
fund the “government” version of those services, at least
not to the same degree, if they did not feel compelled–
by moral obligation and the threat of punishment–
to do so. Any private charity that had the inefficiency,
corruption, and record of abuse that AFDC, HUD,
Medicare, and other “government” programs have, would
quickly lose all of its donors. Any private company as
expensive, corrupt, and inefficient as “government”
infrastructure programs would lose all of its customers.
Any private protection service which was so often caught
abusing, assaulting, and even killing unarmed, innocent
people would have no customers. Any private company
that claimed to be providing defense, but told its
customers it needed a billion dollars every week to wage
a prolonged war on the other side of the world, would
have few, if any, contributors, including among those who
now verbally support such military operations.
The feeling of obligation to pay “taxes” seems to be
little hampered by the fact that “government” is
notoriously wasteful and inefficient. While millions of
“taxpayers” struggle to make ends meet while paying
their “fair share” of “taxes,” politicians waste millions on
laughably silly projects–everything from studying cow
farts, to building bridges to nowhere, to paying farmers to
not grow certain crops, and so on, ad infinitum–and
billions more are simply “lost,” with no accounting of
where they went. But much of what people make
possible through payment of “taxes” is not just wasted
but is quite destructive to society. The “war on drugs” is
an obvious example. How many people would
voluntarily donate to a private organization which had
the stated goal of dragging millions of non-violent
individuals away from their friends and families, to be
put into cages? Even the many Americans who now
recognize the “war on drugs” as a complete failure
continue, via “taxes,” to provide the funding which
allows it to continue to destroy literally millions of lives.
Even the most vocal critics of the various abuses being
perpetrated by the evergrowing
police state are often
among those making that abuse possible, by providing
the funding for it. Whether the issue is blatant oppression,
or corruption, or mere bungling bureaucratic inefficiency,
everyone can point to at least a few things about
“government” that do not meet with his approval. And
yet, having been trained to obey “authority,” he will
continue to feel obligated to provide the funding which
enables the same bungling, corrupt, oppressive
“government” activities that he criticizes and opposes.
Rarely does anyone notice the obvious inherent
contradiction in feeling obligated to fund things that
he thinks are bad.
Of course, people who work for non-authoritarian
organizations can also be inefficient or corrupt, but when
it comes to light what they are doing, their customers
can simply stop funding them. That is the natural
correction mechanism in human interaction, but it is
completely defeated by the belief in “authority.” How
many people are there who are not currently being forced
to fund some “government” program or activity that they
morally oppose? Very few, if any. So why do those
people keep funding things which they feel are
destructive to society? Because “authority” tells them
to, and because they believe that it is good to obey
“authority.” As a result, they continue to surrender the
fruits of their labors to fuel the machine of oppression–
a machine which otherwise would not and could
not exist.
“Governments” produce no wealth; what they spend
they first must take from someone else. Every
“government,” including the most oppressive regimes in
history, has been funded by the payment of “taxes” by
loyal, productive subjects. Thanks to the belief in
“authority,” the wealth created by billions of people will
continue to be used, not to serve the values and priorities
of the people who worked to produce it, but to serve the
agendas of those who, above all else, desire dominion
over their fellow man. The Third Reich was made
possible by millions of German “taxpayers” who felt
an obligation to pay up. The Soviet empire was made
possible by millions of people who felt an obligation to
give to the state whatever it demanded. Every invading
army, every conquering empire, has been constructed out
of wealth that was taken from productive people.
The destroyers have always been funded by the
creators; the thieves have always been funded by the
producers; through the belief in “authority,” the agendas
of the evil have always been funded by the efforts of
the good. And this will continue, unless and until the most
dangerous superstition is dismantled. When the
producers no longer feel a moral obligation to fund the
parasites and usurpers, the destroyers and controllers,
tyranny will wither away, having been starved out of
existence. Until then, good people will keep supplying
the resources which the bad people need in order to carry
out their destructive schemes.
