Pax Americana

Stuff

Via My Favorite Witch comes The Story of Stuff:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

One way to resist war is to resist stuff.  Pledge to do it this holiday season to create peace.

ntodd

For Fourlegs, Who Can't Interpolate

The resistance I run into wrt WTR (man, a punster/schizophrenic such as myself has no idea what to do with such a target-rich environment!) often puzzles me because people seem to think that even looking cross-eyed at the IRS will result in having all your assets seized, being thrown in jail, and having your life ruined not just in this universe but every other until the end of all existence.  Much of this is thanks to an acceptance of the matrix of control our government has imposed upon us, as well as ignorance about the concept of war tax resistance, so before my latest Paxcast uploads I wanted to post a few things to maybe help clarify things.

The biggest thing I've realized is a mistake on my part: my extreme example, intended only to show that Ordinary People can Act Powerfully, makes folks feel like I advocate everybody behaves the same way.  Turns out, there's a continuum of action and a variety of ways one might resist war taxes, to wit:

• Refuse a small, symbolic token amount, such as $10, $10.40, $100, etc. This gets the IRS’s attention, but with less chance of consequences. It’s also simple.
• Refuse a percentage of your taxes equivalent to the percentage of the federal budget used for war/military purposes.  This shows that you will not support that use. For example, you might reduce the tax you pay by:

• 7% — the proportion of 2008 income tax to be spent on the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, or
• 31% — the proportion of 2008 income tax slated for current military expenses, or
• 51% — the part spent on total military expenses.

• Refuse all of the federal tax — because the government will spend a portion of every tax dollar on war purposes.

Another way to approach WTR is to "live simply," which was the theme of this weekend's gathering in Deerfield.  Many of these options are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually enabling and supportive.  We're not all at the same place where we can do all these things, but I hope people will consider creative ways to approach the problem of our current wars and militarization in general.

ntodd

Partying Simply

Thoreau in Civil Disobedience:

I meet this American government, or its representative, the State government, directly, and face to face, once a year - no more - in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it, is to deny it then. My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with - for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel - and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action.

I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name - if ten honest men only - aye, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this co-partnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever...

Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.

I will be at the Woolman Hill Quaker retreat and conference center in Deerfield, MA, this weekend, partying with other people engaged in WTR:

Most war tax resisters try to live simplified lives by consuming and owning less and living well on a reduced income. This generally makes our war tax resistance easier and more sustainable for the long haul. By extension, these ethics will take on increased importance as we experience the change in our lives brought on by global warming, population growth, and scarcity of natural resources.

At this year's Gathering, we will explore the theme, "Taking Control of Change: Embracing Simplicity." Are we victims of change, or do we respond positively to it? Do we see ourselves as "consumers," or do we want to reduce our ecological footprint as much as possible? During our Friday evening panel discussion (free and open to the public), we will hear stories of people who are striving to live the theme. On Saturday, there will be small group discussions on simplicity in many areas, such as transportation, food, housing, etc. Participants can choose their topics of interest.

Hopefully I won't be forced to eat trout in milk, but I'll do what is necessary and hopefully learn from my fellow resisters.

While I'm gone, consider donating to the cause and signing the peace pledge.  I know not everybody is in the same spot I am and able to seize opportunities to act in such drastic ways as quitting jobs and defying the IRS, so I'm trying to be a proxy of sorts and could use any support you can offer...

ntodd

A Gathering Of Doves

Thanks to an e-mail I just received, I have something to do on the weekend soon!

New England Regional Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters
"Taking Control of Change: Embracing Simplicity"
Friday-Sunday, December 7-9, 2007
at Woolman Hill Conference Center, Deerfield, Massachusetts

INTRODUCTION

The New England Regional Gathering of War Tax Resisters provides a time for renewal, support, and an opportunity to be with people who are searching for ways to withdraw their support from military violence. The gatherng is for both new and experienced war tax resisters, as well as for those just testing the waters. The water-testers are most welcome to come and hear the experiences of others. Together we can share, reflect, and reaffirm our commnity of resistance.

THEME OF THE GATHERING

Most war tax resisters try to live simplified lives by consuming and owning less and living well on a reduced income. This generally makes our war tax resistance easier and more sustainable for the long haul. By extension, these ethics will take on increased importance as we experience the change in our lives brought on by global warming, population growth, and scarcity of natural resources.

At this year's Gathering, we will explore the theme, "Taking Control of Change: Embracing Simplicity." Are we victims of change, or do we respond positively to it? Do we see ourselves as "consumers," or do we want to reduce our ecological footprint as much as possible? During our Friday evening panel discussion (free and open to the public), we will hear stories of people who are striving to live the theme. On Saturday, there will be small group discussions on simplicity in many areas, such as transportation, food, housing, etc. Participants can choose their topics of interest.

SCHEDULE

Friday Evening (panel at the meetinghouse adjoining the Woolman Hill Center)

5-7 PM: Registration and Dinner
7-7:30 PM: Welcome and logistics
7:30-9:30 PM: Panel discussion with those who are living their lives based upon simplicity. Free and open to the public.

Saturday
8-9 AM: Breakfast
9:30-10:30 AM: Meet as a large group
10:30-11:30: Small group discussions: Simplicity in transportation, economics, communications, etc.
noon-1 PM: Lunch
1:30-2:20 PM: Small group discussions: Simplicity in food, recreation, community, etc.
2:30-3-20 PM: Small group discussions: Simplicity in housing, health care, etc.
3:30-4:30 PM: Introduction to war tax resistance (for those new to WTR), planning for next year's gathering, feedback from small groups, announcements
4:30-6 PM: Free time
6-7 PM: Dinner
7:30 PM: Talent Show: Bring your instruments and voices--songs, poetry, comedy, etc.

Sunday

8-9 AM: Breakfast
9-11:30 AM: "Songs of the Spirit:" (acapella singing), regional reports of WTR, other peace and justice activities
noon-1 PM: Lunch and cleanup

LOCATION/FACILITIES

Woolman Hill is an idea place for a WTR gathering. It's a Quaker conference center named for John Woolman, a tax reuser during the French and Indian War. Located conveniently one mile north of Old Deerfield, the 110 acres of farmland and woods offer several well-marked trails.

Contact info available at the Western Mass AFSC for any New England readers who are interested.  And if you want more info on WTR, start here...

ntodd

Pretty Soon You're Talking About Real Money

I've been following the Bush adminstration's fuzzy math and true costs of the war since the beginning, so of course this caught my eye:

The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could total $2.4 trillion through the next decade, or nearly $8,000 per man, woman and child in the country, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate scheduled for release Wednesday.

A previous CBO estimate put the wars' costs at more than $1.6 trillion. This one adds $705 billion in interest, taking into account that the conflicts are being funded with borrowed money.

Pete Stark did an admirable job linking these astronomical costs of death and destruction to our alleged inability to preserve life and care for children with SCHIP.  When you consider the Right's canard that people making $83K should be able to make choices and afford healthcare for their kids, they are correct.  "Should" being the operative word.

When you're stealing $8000 from each person in this country, those families lose a significant chunk of all that "discretionary" income they're supposed to be investing in their kids' insurance.

ntodd

Maladjustment

Dr King:

I must honestly say to you tonight my friends that there are some things in our world, there are some things in our nation to which I’m proud to be maladjusted, to which I call upon all men of goodwill to be maladjusted until the good society is realized.

I must honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism and the self defeating effects of physical violence.

And I say to you that I am absolutely convinced that maybe the world is in need for the formation of a new organization: "The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment" -- men and women who will be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day would cry out in words that echo across the centuries: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream;” as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; as maladjusted as Thomas Jefferson who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery would etch across the pages of history words lifted to cosmic proportions: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;” as maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth that said to the men and women of his day: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.”

And through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.

ntodd

Collapsing

I've been reading Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed, and a few parts of Chapter 14 (Why do some societies make disastrous decisions?) struck me so I thought I'd share:

Prior experience is not a guarantee that a society will anticipate a problem, if the experience happened so long ago as to have been forgotten.  That's especially a problem for non-literate societies, which have less capacity to preserve detailed memories of events long in the past, because of the limitations of oral transmission of information compared to writing.  For instance...Chaco Canyon Anasazi society survived several droughts before succumbing to a big drought in the 12th century AD.  But earlier droughts had occurred long before the birth of any Anasazi affected by the big drought, which would thus have been unanticipated because the Anasazi lacked writing.  Similarly, the Classic Lowland Maya succumbed to a drought in the 9th century, despite their area having been affected by drought centuries earlier.  In that case, although the Maya did have writing, it recorded kings' deeds and astronomical events rather than weather reports, so that the drought of the 3rd century did not help the Maya anticipate the drought of the 9th century.

In modern literate societies whose writing does discuss subjects besides kings and planets, that doesn't necessarily mean that we draw on prior experience committed to writing.  We, too, tend to forget things.  For a year or two after the gas shortages of the 1973 Gulf oil crisis, we Americans shied away from gas-guzzling cars, but then forgot that experience and are now embracing SUVs, despite volumes of print spilled over the 1973 events. [ed note: Diamond goes on to recount the failure of imagination by the French with their Maginot Line and note victors often plan for the last war.]
...
Perhaps the commonest circumstance under which societies fail to perceive a problem is when it takes the form of a slow trend concealed by wide up-and-down fluctuations.  The prime example in modern times is global warming.  We now realize that temperatures around the world have been slowly rising in recent decades, due in large part to atmospheric changes caused by humans.  However, it is not the case that the climate each year has been exactly 0.01 degree warmer than in the previous year.  Instead, as we all know, climate fluctuates up and down erratically from year to year...With such large and unpredictable fluctuations, it has taken a long time to discern the average upwards trend of 0.01 degree per year within that noisy signal.  That's why it was only a few years ago that most professional climatologists previously skeptical of the reality of global warming became convinced.  As of the time that I write these lines, President Bush of the US is still not convinced of its reality, and he thinks that we need more research.  The medieval Greenlanders had similar difficulties in recognizing their climate was gradually becoming colder, and the Maya and Anasazi had trouble discerning that theirs was becoming drier.

Politicians use the term "creeping normalcy" to refer to such slow trends concealed within noisy fluctuations.  If the economy, schools, traffic congestion, or anything else is deteriorating only slowly, it's difficult to recognize that each successive year is on the average slightly worse than the year before, so one's baseline standard for what constitutes "normalcy" shifts gradually and imperceptibly.  It may take a few decades of a long sequence of such slight year-to-year changes before people realize, with a jolt, that conditions used to be much better several decades ago, and that what is accepted as normalcy has crept downwards.
...
Contrary to what Joseph Tainter and almost anyone else would have expected, it turns out that societies often fail even to attempt to solve a problem once it has been perceived.

Many of the reasons for such failure fall under the heading of what economists and other social scientists term "rational behavior," arising from clashes of interest between people.  That is, some people may reason correctly that they can advance their own interests by behavior harmful to other people.  Scientists term such behavior "rational" precisely because it employs correct reasoning, even though it may be morally reprehensible.  The perpetrators know that they will often get away with their bad behavior, especially if there is no law against it or if the law isn't effectively enforced.  They feel safe because the perpetrators are typically concentrated (few in number) and highly motivated by the prospect of reaping big, certain, and immediate profits, while the losses are spread over large numbers of individuals.  That gives the losers little motivation to go to the hassle of fighting back, because each loser loses only a little and would receive only small, uncertain, distant profits even from successfully undoing the minority's grab.  [ed note: hmm...I wonder what examples we might come up with?]

I don't really have anything to add, but I suspect the astute reader will figure out why these passages leaped out at me.  I guess I only can ask: what lessons can we glean and how can we apply them as we try to end our current war and perhaps mitigate the impact of our addiction to oil and the rampant militarism in our society?

ntodd

PS--I recommend the book, as well as Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, which I also recently read.