The Stockholm Syndrome, for anyone who has never heard of it, was made famous by an incident in Stockholm, Sweden where bank employees were held hostage by bank robbers for 5 days in 1973. The syndrome part is where the hostages started to side with the bank robbers and even defended them during the trial. This syndrome was nothing new at that time, it’s just that the medical profession put a name to it.
This psychological effect plagues a greater population than I first realized. The greatest population this syndrome affects is people who believe in the state. Even though it is clear that most problems in the world start with state institution. War, the kidnapping and poisoning of children, the prison industrial complex, and general abuse and exploitation of people are all derived from state actions.None of this is possible on a large scale and over such a long period of time with the existence of a state.
When people that something to the effect of “If you love your country then why don’t you want to pay taxes?”, it’s important to analyze some words. The main word being ‘country’. No matter how it is defined, in the end it is a land mass or just plain old dirt. So, someone could possibly love dirt, but it doesn’t need people to have money forced out of them to be taken care of. Which brings up the word ‘tax’. What is it? Well, the legal definition of tax is, as Marc Stevens points out,
“The organized use of threats, coercion, intimidation, and violence to compel the payment for actual or alleged services of arbitrary or excessive charges under the guise of membership dues, protection fees, royalties, or service rates. United States v McGlone (DC Pa) 19 F Supp 285, 286.” Ballentine’s Law Dictionary, page 1051.
This is a perfectly good reason why people shouldn’t pay any tax. No product or service should be provided through force or coercion. I’ve seen some people say, something like, ” when there’s no government (by this they mean coercive) someone will start another government.” This is could be true, which is why it is important to recognize the behavior of sociopaths ones of that scale and stop it in its tracks. One day people will see that anyone claiming to have dominion of anyone else is clearly insane.
If humans are so advanced, then it should be clear that it’s wrong to steal from people to give to someone else, or ‘stealing from Peter to give to Paul’ doesn’t make it right. Another non sequitur of coercive governments like to throw around is the government rules by the consent of the governed, but if governed means control, how could something that is governed give consent? If we want to be truly free we must be aware that it’s impossible to be free if you’re governed. If we are to be governed, then we must be aware that it is enslavement. If we defend government, then we our minds are being held hostage.
