Journal of the mental environment
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Time for another tea party
Why are Americans passively accepting the greatest tax rip-off of all time?
- Thu, 02 Oct 2008 3:28 pm — Posted by Paul
- | 45 comments
In 1773 a mob of American colonists famously dumped crates of tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston harbor. It was a direct action by citizens against the tax regime of the British government, and just one of several incidents that ultimately led to the Revolutionary War.
More than two-hundred years later Americans still notoriously abominate taxes. They hate taxes so much that they deny themselves a privilege taken for granted by every other civilized nation on earth, namely, universal healthcare.
So how can they just sit quietly by as the greatest tax rip-off of all time is inflicted on them?
The $700,000,000,000 bailout package approved by the senate yesterday will place a tax burden of several thousand dollars on every man, woman, and child in the U.S. and that’s on top of the huge debt they already bear. It is a burden that exceeds by an order of magnitude the burden that the British tried to place on the American colonists after the Seven Year’s War. More significantly, it is the result not of justifiable expenditure, but of corruption at the highest levels.
Yet all is quiet. No protests in the streets, no angry mobs, no latter-day Boston Tea Partiers tarring and feathering the crooked politicians and bankers who made it all possible.
Exactly what do you have to do to people in the twenty-first century to provoke direct action?
Comments
America will not have a revolution… as soon as obama won, the majority sat down with a smile and stopped. I think that even when Obama is in power, Americans are just going to stand there and wait for Obama to fix the country. But like he said in his speeches, he can not do it alone…but if the people pressure the government for change then maybe just maybe, “Yes we can” can be a reality.
America has lost its activism…they ended slavery, women and black people got their rights…then their activism stopped and corporations moved slavery to sweatshops around the world.
The real Revolution will come from the developing world, its coming right now, they want change, they are hungry for it, and they also want to live on this planet together, beside us, not as our subordinates.
I’ve read in here some really passionate people about growing our own food. Check out Airoponics, its a form of hydoponics. Check out the book “how to supercharge your garden”. This how ever is not a viable solution for everyone…city farms might be. What makes us(civilization) so great is how efficient we are with our time and population…it only takes a handful of people to provide a hundred thousand with food.
I believe that if we are going to improve this world we have to switch as many products to digital technology, and improve our transportation methods.
ie. A wireless organic LED touchscreen pocket book (1 1/2 by 2 feet once folded out) You can use it to download new books, magazines, newspapers, play chess, checkers, watch videos, and educate.
Look around your room…what do you actually need? How many resources can we allocate to better uses?
People must spend their money not on stuff that they throw out, but on experiences either digitally even better in reality. How great would it be to take a train across America from La-New York in 2hours…we have the technology. With a new network of magnetic/electric trains people and products could move with a lot less pollution, time and resource consumption.
thanks for reading.
Cheers,
William Robson
——Citizen of the world—-
why are amerikans passively accepting the greatest environmental destruction of all time…..mountain top removal coal mining? oh wait, they’re not. direct action is alive and well in the united states AND around the world. take some plays from their play book if you are angry about taxes and lack of healthcare. there have been no lack of direct actions and of civil disobedience, in the streets, on university campuses and the construction sites themselves illuminating the externalities of coal, the dirty “little secrets” economists so conveniently ignore. the ball is rolling, too, with more people waking up everyday. however protesting and making yourself look like a wingnut these days is getting trickier. with big brother always looking over our shoulders, even environmental lobbyists are getting put on domestic terrorism watch lists. i think it’s time we call out those in positions of power whom we know to be terrible and causing unlivable conditions for their so called citizens and customers. (most electricity burned at coal plants is wired elsewhere to feed faraway neighborhoods & urban sprawl zones) to me, direct action speaks loudest when purposeful and consistent, creating memes and rituals and reinforcing those which facilitate the building of participatory and healthy economies, where corporations do not rule. direct action doesn’t even need to be synonymous with civil disobedience. a direct action is a choice, a choice to act, whether that is quietly, loudly, in a local, regional or national setting, within the “law” or without. it is the willingness to sacrifice one law for another, and by acting, to create space for the most just law to prevail.
Commenting on a counter-culture website blog is not activism. It is masturbation.
You want a revolution? You really want to shut the whole system down? You need to drop out of it. It's a machine that operates with your bodies as gears, your time as fuel. How do you shut down a machine? Remove the gears, take away the fuel. The system doesn't care what you say, what you think, or what you do, so long as you keep going to work, keep going to school, and keep paying your taxes. Think what you want, say what you want, pray how you want, vote how you want, nothing will change because you are the vehicle and the fuel for the oppression you recognize but are incapable of stopping. You need to remove yourself from the system. Take away the gears, remove the fuel. But how you say?
Start with the basics: Food, shelter, clothes. Look around your community.
Is there a neighborhood garden you can volunteer at in exchange for vegetables? Talk to people there, learn how to grow, cook, and preserve your own food. See if you can work in exchange for a plot, bring friends, work together, share skills/time/enthusiasm.
Is there a food bank around? Stock up on canned goods, see what other freebies are available, tax the system. Most food banks, assistance programs, etc don't require much information or have requisites for free food. If they do, lie if you have to, or better yet tell them what you're doing, tell them you're dropping out of the system and why and offer to volunteer in exchange for food, advice, and friendship.
Tear up your lawn or find an abandoned plot of land. Plant food on it instead of useless grass. Gardening is easier than you think. Hand tools, which you can beg, borrow, or steal are all you need in addition to some seeds, time, and help. Work together.
Stop paying rent. Stop paying your mortgage. Talk to people, find somebody that owns a place or piece of land and is sympathetic or better yet passionate about the cause. Camp out if possible. Or look for an abandoned building near your food source. Make sure it's got water. Electricity can be stolen or produced on site with a generator. Live with like-minded people, start building a coalition, you can't/won't do this alone. Strength, resiliency,a and the ability to adapt is in numbers.
Stock up on warm, sturdy clothes. Extra cloth, tarps, boots, and gloves. Thrift stores all the way. Twenty bucks will buy you six months worth of good clothes. Needles and thread, learn how to sew, its easy: teach others.
How do you pay for this? Sell your shit. I know you've got a lot. You don't read Adbusters unless you've got shit you feel guilty about and can sell. Once you've got your money stash, spend it wisely. Don't wander around like a fucking wannabe bohemian drinking four dollar lattes at coffee shops talking about how you're a revolutionary. Try and get away from spending money to get what you need. Money is the lubricant that makes the machine work. Without money the machine grinds to a halt. Debauch the currency and the system will fail. Stop buying things with money. See if you can trade, work for, or steal (from big-business, corporations, or the gov; never individuals, locals, or non-profits) the things you need to survive. Your dollar is your vote. Every dollar you have in a bank is a vote for banks. Every dollar you spend in taxes is a vote for the government. Every dollar you spend on something other than local, non-profit, or fair-trade companies is a vote for a trans-national, profit driven, exploitative world in which you are the gears and the fuel. Remove the gears, take away the fuel.
You can do this today, right now, immediately. And if you do it with enough passion, conviction, and intelligence, people will do it with you. You can be the spark on a tinder heap. The pebble that sets off a landslide. You can change the world starting right now.
Except you won't.
Because you're a fucking pussy.
1st.
If somebody leaves the system…that does not hurt it, it will just find a new replacement.
2nd.
Money is good because it enables you create change. I do not like our current monetary system, but that’s not my point. When most people get money, they like you said spend it on themselves…but if you want to be a revolutionist, save it until you can use it to create and influence change.
ie. create your own business that supports social change.
donate it to an organization that informs people and encourages them to change their living habits and informs them of the world that we actually live in.
… I recommend donating to www.therealnews.com because we really need something like this, but thats just me.
Cheers.
ps. swearing hurts your argument.
There should be more interest in your own cultural subcommunity that one helps to create rather than in global politics. The despair of not being able to change the system might as well be chanelled into helping a friend to refurbish a soon to open record-book store, cheap intelligent clothing/ yoga meditation center/cafe-shop/you name it. Help your friends and the ones you love. Rob the system and give back to those who you know would not give birth and raise scycotic zombies of the least common denomination
There sure are alot of crazy people out there. Do you guys even read what you write before you post it? I think some of you need professional help.
Dare I say this?
I find it eerily ironic that there are more comments on the facebook blog and hipster article than on this article.
This just goes to show you how hard we have to fight to reclaim our country.
Or should we even fight at all and let the best man win?
The proposal is a tax revolt. Everyone pays federal taxes in some form of another, even if it's the tax on your telecom bill. Stop paying them.
1. Pay all of your bill except the federal tax, and note that you're not paying that in protest (let AT&T and the other telecoms pick up that tab at least).
2. If you're employed, change your federal withholding to $0. It's perfectly legal. You won't owe it until April 15, and you can get an extension until you decide whether or not you're going to pay it. Meanwhile, you can have the advantage of those dollars, instead of allowing the federal government to toss it into the fraudsters' black hole. They make interest on the withholding taxes we pay in advance, but charge us penalty and interest if we're late.
3. By April 15, we demand a) an end to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq; 2) universal health care; 3) cessation of aid to Israel; 4....(fill in)
Do something. Immediately. The government has been irresponsible with our tax dollars. Against our wishes and the recommendations of hundreds of the most reputable economists in the world, Congress has passed a $700b handover to Wall Street, and foreign bankers, in the biggest fraud and holdup in the history of mankind. In doing so, Congress made it clear that they represented the interests of financiers and bankers and corporations and not the interests of their constituents who elected them. It is a clear-cut case of taxation without representation, and we demand a do-over.
If the american people would only unite we could make a change over nite.
While I like the idea of ways to get the word out about supporting truly enlightened third party candidates for Congress, my concern is that the traitors of humanity in our midst are always thinking one step ahead of the game in their preparation for any contingency.As was the case with the last two Presidential elections and this year's early primary voting as it concerned Ron Paul, the results were rigged. Unless you're able to install some seriously scrupulous and comprehensive watchdog surveillance system that 'watches the watchers' you're gonna run into the same problem
Once people see the vast expanse of NOTHING this bailout buys them, they will awaken and violently protest - by buying something stupid on credit and complaining soothingly.
The Bush administration expects some kind of a popular uprising. That's why they have brought the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division Combat Team, about 4,000 strong, quietly back to the U.S. from Afghanistan and attached them to NORTHCOM, the continental U.S. Army group designated for "counterterrorism," "crowd control" and "natural disaster" duty. I'm sure they are not the last American combat force the administration intends to bring in to control the population. The 3rd ID is one of the most "blooded," experienced combat units in the American military. They are fresh from fierce combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will do the same to their "fellow Americans" as they have done abroad.
I think the Bush regime is COUNTING ON an insurrection among the people! In fact, if we fail to revolt on cue, they will probably do it for us! It will provide the perfect excuse for declaring martial law, suspending the Constitution (what there is left of it!) PERMANENTLY and suspending the presidential election, INDEFINITELY! Then, when the Bush regime has complete power, they will probably disband Congress ("for their own safety!") and send out the Army and Blackwater to round up all the regime's critics (all "liberals," who are now considered "domestic terrorists") and herd them into the 800 concentration camps (er, "civilian detention centers") that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has constructed all over the U.S. over the last twenty-odd years. The existence of these camps was recently documented by the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
It is far too late for Americans to be concerned about politics! Politics no longer exists! We are staring death in the face.
Wow, someone is awake.
Does any one really think that if we hadn't rescued our banking sectors it would have been all doom and gloom forever. No, listen to Ron Paul, who aid it would have taken a year or so to get over it.
What we now have is banks, in england any way, where we have banks that have been nationalised. The tax payer owns this bank, which is refusing to pass on rate cuts to it's customers. Charging small businesses 15% interest on business accounts.
What are we all letting happen here.
We are being conned. We will be paying back the rich people of the world for this for a very long time and thats exactly where they want our nations, in debt to them. You see this is a silent war, against the ordinary people of the world. It may sound like crap to you now, but you watch as the next steps begin to unravel. And watch what happens when it all goes wrong and as a result there is a major war against a western country.
Just one more point, watch the Bush family. They seem to be making a lot of money from ilegal selling of land, can anyone explain any of this?
I would love to see the people of america come together and unite against a corrupt government which is corrupting the world.
The British need to do the same. Let's get back to family first, business next.
FREEDOM MEANS: TAKING BACK CONGRESS. We vote in a new Congress in November that is "of the people, by the people and for the people." Regardless of who gets in as president, if we take back Congress by ousting all who voted for the bank bailout, then Congress can repeal the Patriot Act, repeal the dictatorial powers a previous Congress handed to the president, dissolve the Federal Reserve, and so on down the line.
The trick is to know our candidates and who the sincere ones are, then promote them widely through viral email. If there aren't sincere people on the ballot in our area, we must do write-ins, and publicize that grassroots effort, too.
The little mice freed the lion in the fable, when no one else could. The little guy can take back control of the government by quickly getting to work on gnawing those ropes.
Research your candidates, and go viral with the good ones! Explain this strategy in your viral emails, ask people to disseminate them far and wide, and let's get to work!
Bronte Baxter
People will rise up when they've lost their jobs and aren't overextended to work 2 - 3 jobs to pay the mortgage, etc. We have to act locally no matter -- for ex., the sheriff of a town in Illinois is refusing to evict honest people who've lost their homes. The judge is threatening him with contempt of court, but the guy is going to stand by his convictions. What are your convictions? What can you do locally?
I agree wholeheartedly. Communicate your support to these people, if I may add. It can only help.
As much as this information-based 'New Revolution' in 3rd party choices stated just below is far more preferable over the necessary violent revolutions in class struggle of the past evidenced in history, such a 'New Revolution' demands a reality-based, knowledgeable rational population in the US that is NOT evident in the majority.
Just look at how well supported the McCain-Palin campaign of absurdity has still been despite how embarrassing it should be seen by the entirety of the GOP constituency. A vast majority in America has been dumbed down and indoctrinated into a 2 party corporatist system of right authoritarian Democrats and Republicans.
The fallacious laden right wing NeoLibertarian support by the Ronulan Paulite Cult for Theocracy bent Ron Paul is a prime example. The Preacher Ron Paul has endorsed ironically running for President from the 'Constitution Party' on a platform destroying the very foundation of the constitution itself, the separation of Church and State, is another example. Both TheoCons proclaiming the very same as the Bush Texas GOP platform in this separation of Church and State to a 'myth' in their Christian zealotry to replace what little democracy left in the US with a formally declared theocracy...
"Big scary weapons" are no match against an internally driven American revolutionary 'insurgency' of 10s of millions Freedom Fighters dedicated to the cause for freedom...
Note a new Wayne Madsen report on FEMA sources confirming Bush admin is putting final touches on plans to declare Martial Law
"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
Do YOU Support the Economic Policy of Fascism?
Dude, you are all over the place! Do you know who your mad at? There are enough empty rants on the internet.
Maybe they will get mad when you repo their TVs that they cannot make their payments on .
The one thing you're forgetting in this analogy is that the colonists who revolted lived in a land distant and physically separated from their oppressors. After all, there was never a British Revolution. A French Revolution, yes -- but that was directly inspired by the American Revolution.
The problem now is that the American Government has all the big, scary weapons -- which we, the People, bought and paid for. Second Amendment notwithstanding, it would take a physical turnout on the order of millions of people to manage anything, and we all know that's not likely. A couple dozen people disguised as Native Americans dumping Wall Street bound armored cars into the East River just wouldn't have the same impact nowadays -- and can we afford another Boston Massacre on a 21st Century scale?
The New Revolution will not be fought with guns or protests. It will be fought with information, and it will be won when the American People reject our failed two party system, and support, in large numbers, the third party candidate of their choice. It will be a soft revolution, to be sure -- but that is the most difficult kind for any tyrannical government to oppose.
It is impossible to identify one specific party that is culpable, but we can look toward politicians who pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make high-risk loans for home ownership during the Clinton admnistration.
You know what? How's about everyone quit lining their pockets for JUST ONE WEEK!! THAT'S RIGHT!! INSTIGATE AN EMPLOYEE MANDATED JOB-WALKOUT FOR ONE WHOLE WEEK AT WHATEVER PLACE YOU WORK! Or would you feel too bad to do that? Why? Because of respect for your business (achem), or because of respect for your consistent dollar (sic)? If your boss gave any sort of damn, too, they'd be the ones mandating it. And they'd be the ones offering advice to the people working for them: "live as well-off the grid as you can during this time; use relatively little electricity, don't drive (much), don't eat out, don't drink, etc." And guess what? IT WOULD WORK. The best part is that even if one might quiz at this statement -- imagining that it wouldn't impact a darned thing (other than customer frustration or something like that) -- they could involve their local media (paper, radio, TV, government) to let the populace know why they did it.
The only reason they get away with this stuff is because we've made ourselves dependent on THEIR DOLLAR. It's complete idiocy. Screw trying to fight by barking at the Representatives, 'cause they were threatened with Martial Law if they DIDN'T pass it. They won't do that to you (or themselves) unless it's absolutely ordered from the top down (National Emergency Response Directive).
Need less of their monetary BS, and more community action. You'll be stronger that way, in self, in family, and in social power to actually run your own government.
...and check out crimethinc dot com, for some help.
Lux et Veritas,
Kairologic
Why are Americans accepting the bailout without protest? As the people who spent more money than they earned, they are well aware that they are contractually obliged to pay on demand, and very few can do so without selling off most of their cool stuff, if at all. Mostly, people like having things they can't really afford. Why not have Uncle Sam as a co-signer if you can get him to do so? It might delay for a while spending less than you earn for as long as it takes to get caught up with past consumption. It was always clear that the standard of living now is borrowed from the future. I guess it's time to sell off and pay up for those who borrowed, and for those of us who are debt free with cash to spare, it's buying at a deep discount time. Cool. I'm finally going to get a condo in the sun, like I've always wanted.
do you mean hurt, sad puppy?
show the people a heart,sad puppy... Or instagate instagations, be inteance......
this is how you take action
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081006150152.aspx
Adbusters is always trying to get these little revolutions started and asking "why isn't it happening?" "Why aren't people organizing en masse?" Because the mob ins't ruled by charismatic orators anymore and impassioned speech, it's ruled by fucking televisions and corporate organizations and mass media and a million fucking voices shouting at you to move and think in every single fucking direction. If Adbusters wants to start a revolution shut down this website on the information saturated Internet, stop printing your magazine and putting it on newstands and periodical sections with dozens of other stacks of wasted paper and resources and start rallying shit up instead of just being another corporate voice of an organization confusing our already over-burdened minds.
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