While reading Henry David Thoreau’s essay titled “Resistance to Civil Government” aka “Civil Disobedience” I found much of what he expressed very compelling and pertinent to the times we are living in now.
In the essay I share parts of below, Henry Thoreau was writing about the 1846–1848 Mexican-American War (another imperialistic war of aggression initiated by the US government as part of their Manifest Destiny policy to murder, pillage and steal land “in the name of god”) but much of what he expresses is also true of this new war of aggression going on today in Iran.
He may not have wanted to overtly declare himself a “Mutualist” (aka “voluntaryist”/ “anarchist” in today’s terms or “no government man” in his words) however, he advocated for principles resembling voluntaryism (and/or anarchism), such as anti-authoritarianism, voluntary association, and the abolition of forced hierarchy.
He invites us to consider the fact that the perpetual imperialistic wars of aggression that result in so much innocent death and suffering (which have continued in the 170 years since he published that essay) were and are funded by our tax dollars and the most simple and moral thing to do would be to flat out refuse to continue funding that system.
He described his refusal to pay taxes and refusal swear allegiance to the inherently immoral and violent coercion based government as “quietly declaring war with the State”.
Thus, I share the following because I think Riley is right when he said that this “Hank” fellow really knew was what going on (“in his little cabin growing beans”) and I think that (in many ways) we would be wise to strive to follow by his example.
“The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government.
The government itself, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
The government does not keep the country free. It does not educate. The character inherent in the people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done more, if the government had not got in its way.
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice.
I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said, that a corporation has no conscience.
Law never made men more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.
They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined.
Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts,— a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments.
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well.
Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs.
Others,—as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders,— serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are likely to serve the Devil.
A very few as heroes and reformers in the great sense, and men-serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.
How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.
All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now.
All machines have their friction; But when oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a whole country is unjustly (…) subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.
I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home, co-operate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless.
There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing.
They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote.
All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but l am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail.
A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.
The soldier is applauded who refuses to serves in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught.
Thus, under the name of Order and Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral.
Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support, are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform.
Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,— the union between themselves and the State,— and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury?
Do not they stand in the same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union?
If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbour, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again.
Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we transgress them at once?
Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse.
Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?
Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offence never contemplated by government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate penalty?
If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who placed him there.
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will be gone. I have other aftairs to attend to.
It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and, if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way: its very Constitution is the evil.
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government , and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one.
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.
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, 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 his 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 have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than the seizure of his goods,— though both will serve the same purpose,— because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to the corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property.
For my own part, I should not ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end.
I have paid no tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I’could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.
I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax.
I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body.
I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.
Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength.
I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I.
When I meet a government which says to me, “Your money or your life,” why should I be in haste to give it my money?
As for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow-countrymen now. It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with,—-the dollar is innocent,—-but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance.
Each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.
In fact, I quietly declare war with the State.”
- Henry David Thoreau , 1849 (select excerpts from his essay “Resistance to Civil Government” aka “Civil Disobedience”.)
Thank you for taking the time to read this and contemplate the implications.
When our governments not only engage in nefarious wars of aggression on human beings, but also declare war on all life on Earth, those that are aware of the pernicious nature of the state have an intact moral compass (as Henry David Thoreau appeared to) declare their unwillingness to submit and instead swear allegiance to the higher laws of nature and the eternal compass of the soul.
What Henry David Thoreau describes as “quietly declaring war with the State” I describe as the choice to Become Ungovernable. As Thoreau, I am not someone that advocates for a violent overthrow of government, as such actions would only serve to further entrench the material power of the oligarchy (and their puppet statist regimes) or it would make the violent revolutionaries into the very thing which they sought to abolish from the world. Rather, I advocate removing the support that holds up the government so that it can collapse as the hollow racketeering operations and house of cards that it is. Rather than wage an overt kinetic war on the state, I advocate utilizing regenerative (ecological literacy aligned) guerilla tactics to starve them out and plant the seeds for something else to grow in its place.
“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government.”
― Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Thus lastly, I will offer some supportive info and perspectives on Henry David Thoreau noble declaration to withdraw support to corrupt institutions of the state where ever possible.
Its time we stopped hoping these inherently abusive, degenerative and immoral systems are going to change and boycott them until they shrivel up, fade away and can be replaced by more ethical, bio-regionally defined, regenerative and voluntary governance structures.
There are those (like Henry David Thoreau) that have courageously refused to may taxes outright (publicly declaring that intent) as a means to boycott these corrupt governments and their oligarchic overlords (while leading by example overtly) such as the Women’s Tax Resistance League (back in 1906) or the Conscience Canada group and their Conscientious Objectors to Military Taxation initiative, along with other overt (publicly declared) tax resistance groups in the UK and US and while I applaud such efforts (and endeavor to follow in their example) there are also more covert methods for avoiding or minimizing the ability for governments to feed on us via taxation.
You can take steps to do transactions in cash or via barter when ever possible locally (cutting out the government mafia middle men) and perhaps more importantly, you can cultivate your own access to real food, medicine and materials you need to live regeneratively.
When you align your health and perception of wealth with the health and biological wealth of the ecosystem that supports you, you are taking a decisive step towards becoming Ungovernable. Regenerative gardening is a form of revolution, rebellion and sabotaging statist regimes as it creates food and health sovereignty, boycotting corporate racketeering operations and empowering individuals to stand on solid ground as they engage in other meaningful acts of resisting tyranny standing in defense of the sacred.
Even if you do not have land to grow on, guerrilla gardening in urban environments , guerrilla food forest gardening in parks, guerrilla grafting, making your own real food at home, using food as medicine , seed saving and seed gifting are powerful forms of resistance against statist tax tyranny and a form of sabotage against the oligarchy.
(for more info on Guerrilla gardening for bringing life, food sovereignty and beauty to artificial “food deserts” in cities, read this)
When we are not only saving heirloom seed, but also growing and preserving food and medicine from our garden we are also engaging in an act of resistance against statist parasitism and we are sabotaging their control grid. As some of you may know, the oligarchs are working diligently to cripple the conventional farmers and global food supply via a variety of means. Creating decentralized food systems that are self-perpetuating (regenerative gardens and/or food forests) sabotages their plans to create a situation where the population is dependent on their centralized food infrastructure (and thus helps to de-fang their plans to use Digital ID, GMOs CBDC and social credit tyranny to force compliance through the dependence of the masses on their systems for our basic necessities).
These forms of sabotage also cripple their ability to enforce their totalitarian schemes on future generations, for through the act of saving seed, sharing it (and regenerating the earth at the same time) we begin to create communities that can be like islands of resilience and abundance that will be immune to the financial coercion tactics and digital shackles that may be utilized in the future.
You were not born a Canadian or an American (nor were you born with any other statist regime based designation) you were born a human being (imbued by the Creator of all things with an unrepeatably unique and magnificently beautiful eternal essence that some call a “soul”) and then everything else was learned/programmed into you along the way.
We can show the oligarchs that we can thrive and exist in peaceful symbiosis with Mother Earth, each other and our fellow non-human beings without their dogmatic fear systems, wars, corporations, experimental synthetic products and corrupt degenerative government systems.
Finger pointing without taking responsibility for how our choices feed into the above listed parasitic industries/institutions is just scapegoating and excuse making. They cannot continue their deadly games without our complicity in supporting their systems.
source: Solari Report)
Each of us can do this to some degree, we can sabotage their plan to make us all into totally dependent consumers of mass produced gmo garbage ‘food’ and instead take back our food sovereignty.
These things I list above with regards to sabotaging the government racketeering operations (such as taxation, via growing our own food and medicine and refusing to live in imposed food deserts in cities via guerilla gardening) and sabotaging corporate racketeering operations in Big Ag via seed saving and growing real, nutritious food for our loved ones and communities is important yes, but so is defending the last few pockets of intact old growth forest, the clean rivers the mountains and deserts against the onslaught of the oligarchy’s Earth eating machine of modernity.
What Max Wilbert is talking about in this video is of critical importance for any voluntaryists, abolitionists (those opposed to and resisting statist tax slavery), ecological activist or industry/statist regime saboteurs if they want to go about resisting and dismantling the monster of modernity and statism in a way that is ethically coherent. As we cannot legitimately claim to be a warrior in defense of the sacred if we are buying all our food from Amazon and Walmart (which are both corporations pillaging the Earth and human beings).
And it’s not all or nothing (grow everything you eat or what’s the point”) as some people that would rather not get their hands in the soil would imply for a cop out excuse). Baby steps in the direction of growing some of one’s own food and medicine in a way that also supports the ecology on your local bioregion are meaningful too. Even if it’s just starting a compost , growing potted medicinal herbs that also help pollinators, that is a powerful act any of us can choose.
I would also emphasize that cultivating plant and fungi identification experience is an action that also helps the land for through foraging in a way that respects and even enriches biodiversity, trees and fungi (using tenets such as “The Way Of The Honorable Harvest”) we simultaneously withdraw our support from big ag while becoming more effective voluntaryists, animists, abolitionists (those opposed to and resisting statist tax slavery), ecological activist or industry/statist regime saboteurs (as the more we know about the ecology we are trying to protect and how precolonial peoples were sustained by that ecology the more effective guerrilla resistance operations can be if you need to disappear into the forest for a while.
One simple example to localize your access to food and medicine (boycotting government taxation rackets, big pharma and big ag) is by being able to respectfully forage for evergreen foliage (using spruce, fir or pine foliage aka “needles” to make tea). It is a simple but powerful way to get a sustainable local source of high potency vitamin C and immune system enhancing compounds (rather than buying orange juice from massive monoculture farms that suppress local ecology and soak the earth in petroleum based fertilizer and chemicals).
Here is a link to an in-depth article I published on several conifer species that are common in the Pacific Northwest as well as much of the rest of Turtle Island (aka North America) and parts of Europe. It offers info on identification, recipes for tea and other preserves made from the foliage and info on how to grow these trees from seed for regenerative works.
It is a great starting point to create pockets of decentralized resistance to oligarchic / statist tyranny as growing your own medicine and veggies may appear harmless, but in a parasitic global plutocracy it represents a decisive action that severs the tentacles of tyranny in a critically important aspect of our lives (how we access food and medicine). Thus, it is a radical and revolutionary act that appears benign to the hubristic philanthropaths and demociders, serving as a sort of covert sedition in a world governed by parasites that want us dependent, gardening to grow or own food and medicine is like a hammer wrapped in velvet that knee caps big pharma’s plans to poison us slowly through dependence on their system for health care and also strikes the spine of the digital gulag system, breaking its back so it can no longer have any strength to influence our lives through controlling our access to food/medicine.
Regenerative gardening, heirloom seed saving, seed exchanging and preserving our own food and medicine is an act rebellion that sabotages the plans of the oligarchy (and their subservient statist regimes) to use food as a weapon. The revolution will involve a handful of seeds and fermented cabbage my friends.
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We were raised to believe that taxes are the benevolent government’s way of caring for and protecting us with infrastructure, military, education and “health” care. We are told that this part of a “social contract” in which the state provides security, infrastructure, and collective purpose in exchange for taxation and civic participation.
We live in a world where people have been inculcated into cult like belief systems by highly advanced psychological warfare tactics. These psychological operations convince good salt of the earth people here, where you live and all over this beautiful Earth to pick up devices designed with the sole and explicit intent of ending human life and pulling th…
I needed that, thank you. Yes, be ungovernable and grow food. We have a forest garden; it feeds us and friends very well. It keeps me wild and healthy.
I needed that, thank you. Yes, be ungovernable and grow food. We have a forest garden; it feeds us and friends very well. It keeps me wild and healthy.
Stay human