Earlier this month passed another Veterans Day, which formerly commemorated the signing of the armistice which would end Europe’s World War the first. Often forgotten in the celebration associated with the cessation of war are the victims who suffer from its ills long after alleged peace deals are signed. The effects of WWI on the culture of the US and the world were not fully actualized as events were transpiring. If history was any indicator, the nation would find itself in the same brutish death trap just over a generation later.
Conscientious objectors at Camp Lewis, WA. Nov 1918
A violent militarism, which could be described as an antipacifism, swept the United States, with an even stronger sentiment arising in the more war-ravaged Soviet Union. One of the darkest examples of this hostility towards civilians during WWI is the treatment of pacifist Hutterites following the draft which began just over a year before the war would come to an end. While saukerkraut makers were changing their product names to ‘Liberty Cabbage’ and South Dakota was banning instruction of the German language in government schools, four members of a 400 year old pacifist, communalist Christian sect received draft notices to risk their lives in Europe for the mythical Uncle Sam. Perhaps it was by chance and perhaps deliberately that four names from an antimilitant community found their way onto the draft register. There had already been tension building between the area Hutterites and their neighbors, as the community had refused to buy war bonds the year prior. (more…)
This post was originally published to copblock.org on Nov. 26th, 2012. It’s shared here both due to the actions depicted (and the ideas that motivated the actions) and because those who created the video have spent time in the ‘shire.
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Taxes are theft. Think about it – do you want to hand over coin that you earned to a stranger simply because such an action is demanded?
Much like the ransom note that you might receive from someone wearing a badge, it’s not due to a sense of gratefulness that you might acquiesce but because of the implicit threat. The “or else” ramifications.
It was that rationale that caused North Carolina resident and Carolinas Cop Block founder Clyde Voluntaryist to pay the property tax fee associated with his vehicle. But instead of just cutting a check for the total amount, he first stopped by his bank, where he picked-up the total – in pennies.
If you find yourself with a ransom note for possessing a plant someone claims is “illicit” or for a vehicle “infraction” or any number of other victimless actions, consider sitting the time. By doing so, you won’t help to finance your local organized criminal gang, and in fact, will lessen their resources.
If you can’t sit the time, offer to donate the same amount to a charity or cause that you support.
If you’re told that’s not permissible, and you decide to pay the bribe to prevent future harassment, doing so with pennies is a low-risk way to demonstrate that you do not support their institution based on coercion.
Just imagine if 10% of ransom notes were paid as such…
If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized.
-Lysander Spooner
The signups keep rolling in with the Free State Project crossing another exciting milestone – 2/3rds of the original 20,000 participant goal! It seems like people joining at an increasing clip.
