Memories of the 28th Century

I am not an agent provocateur; I am an observer and commenter. It has been some time since the U.S.A. has had major political upheaval, so, like an earthquake zone that has not had any quakes, pressure has built up. If we look at the basic causes for the pressures, we can usually see unequal treatment before the law. Unequal treatment covers a lot of ground from discriminatory taxation to granting benefits to some people that are not available to all.


Some more specific issues that are in need of Civil Disobedience include:

• Regimentation of children: Many children never even get to play outside, except under strict supervision.
• Inequitable taxes: consider graduated income taxes with various preferences, deductions, etc., etc.
• Intrusive laws and agencies: Think about the NSA
• Extension of the federal government into matters that are not among its powers
• Extra privileges for married persons: Part of this is built into the culture, but different treatment in tax laws is clearly indefensible.
• Extra privileges for disabled persons: What else do you call handicapped only parking spaces? And that's just the start.
• Religious preference: Religions get exemptions from most taxes. Why don't I?
• Net Neutrality versus net advantages: Should some companies be able to tell you how to live your life?
• Criminalization of some drugs and other materials: This has been the root of much evil, and it only goes back a hundred years, but some people think it is right that government should be able to tell you how to live your life.

Well, you can let them tell you how to live, but I haven't given government permission to run my life. I accept the social contract that Thomas Hobbes brought up in The Leviathan, but the government has pushed its powers too far. I accept the power of government to regulate activities such that crimes will be discouraged, or punished when they are committed, and I accept the authority of government to act as an intermediary in disputes, but I don't see any value in government limiting the actions of individuals when their actions affect only themselves. That is, government does not own me; I am not an instrument of government; government is a collection of instruments that belong to the governed that are designed to ease the interactions among individuals and to handle matters that are too large for individuals to tend to themselves, as individuals.

Most of the other matters that I cited above relate to the nature of government and the limits of governmental power. I understand why religions are granted special privileges. Religions were above civil government until not all that long ago, and there is a background fear that religion may continue its comeback into power that is so important to what IS is doing. IS might like to have the Papacy as its principal foe.

This is coming back to the Enlightenment, when religion lost its upper position and when individuals started governing themselves by their own standards. It hasn't been all that long since religion was put into its present place.

Perhaps it is time to put religion where it belongs; we could show our real contrast with the fanatics who are trying to take control in the Middle East. If churches lost their privileges in the U.S. it would have little effect on anything, because typically the people who are gaining advantage from religious tax exemption would be able to pay the taxes from money saved in other places. Other than tax advantages religious institutions don’t get many extra benefits, but along with other non-profit organizations they are allowed to do some fund raising activities that for profit organizations can’t, so we would also have to take the legal benefits from all non-profit organizations, and we might want to be sure that anything that those organizations will be able to do can also be done by any business or individual. Here in Massachusetts non-profits can use gambling for fund raising, so anyone should be able to run a casino.

Removing the tax exemptions from churches and non-profit organizations would mostly mean that they would have to keep better records and fill out different income tax forms, because they are supposed to file income tax returns and other information annually. If the political will to make religion just another private club is not there, then it is time for me make get serious about religion. If some people get advantage from their religion, then I want equal treatment for my religion.

The next step will be map out a campaign. We could have people picket outside churches to point out how advantageous it is to have a church, And we could draft legislation to remove advantages from religious institutions. While removing the advantages from non-profits would fit the programs of all major political parties, it is uncertain how they would actually move on this issue. But a campaign of letter writing to newspapers would put the issue in public view, and it might create the impression that there was enough backing for this idea to show that now is the time for it.

For those who don't want to get involved in this issue we could also start pushing for the advantages for which gay folk have been pushing for the right to marry. Let's make married people equal before the law to single people, and while we are at it we could get government out of the wedding business. Make marriage what it was until fairly recently, a religious ceremony that had little standing in law. It would best for marriage to be a contract between (or among) those getting married.