A Unicorn's Perspective on the Human Perspective of Taxation

There are a few questions from my last post that I completely ignored. I'll attempt to answer some of them with this post. Those questions are: "Why is it that people in general are just fine being stolen from in the form of taxation? Is it really because they believe that taxation is legitimate? Is there some deeper, more sinister reason?" It is a very serious set of questions that, perhaps, should be answered in the form of a story.

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there was a fellow named Robin Hood, who loved his town and those who inhabited it very much. A king happened to have dominion over that town at the time, and for unknown reasons, had to leave his son in charge. The prince, being a fantastic lover of gold and all kinds of wealth, thought it prudent to tax the ever living shit out of the poor inhabitants of the town until every last copper was gone. He did this by having his crony sheriff go around threatening the good people of the town with time in the dungeons or being hanged or just having the snot beaten out of them. This Robin Hood fellow, being a super-awesome shot with a bow, went around getting the ill-gotten gains of the prince back to the people. This pissed the prince right the fuck off and made him want to murderate this hoodlum.

Now, I'm sure you've heard this story before at least once, and if you haven't, I'd suggest suggest finding some version of it and give it a read/watch/listen/whatever. In whatever version of the story you get your hooves on, I'm sure you'll find it fascinating to note that in nearly every mention of the story, people say that Robin Hood stole the money from the prince. I always wondered why this was the case. Wouldn't one think that, since the sheriff took all of that wealth via threats of violence, shouldn't HE be considered the thief, rather than the individual who took it upon himself to return those stolen goods to the people?

It seems to me that, despite the actions of those in power, so long as they frame the argument a certain way, they can beguile even the most shrewd of individuals into thinking that their power is legitimate, while those who don't have this veil of legitimacy are less legitimate, especially if they disagree. In fact, those that question them are even less legitimate and may even be dubbed 'unpatriotic,' 'rabble-rouser,' 'treasonous,' or perhaps even 'terrorist.' Even as a sheriff is beating a man who couldn't hurt a fly, the masses praise the sheriff and hate the man who would dare to raise an arm to defend himself.

How is it possible to get so many people to believe such a massively obvious load of bullshit? To the people of the town, Robin Hood was a hero, but the people of that town did not hate the sheriff enough to outright hang him, nor the prince who made their lives a living hell. It was not the taxes that they hated so much as the collector. It was not the king so much as the prince so much as the violence inherent in the system.

So long as people continue to believe that taxation is a legitimate way to get things done, so long as they have no perceived choice in the matter, and so long as taxation is enforced with violence, it will continue to be a pain-filled offense and humans will continue to look at their institutions with child-like naivete as if those institutions were a stern parent. Once humanity realizes that taxation is not necessary, nor the violence used to enforce it necessary, nor is taxation an efficient method for getting those things done that taxation supposedly does, I believe that we will be on a path toward a more peaceful world.

But to actually answer the question: I don't think people really ARE 'just fine' with being stolen from. I think, deep down, everyone who is stolen from knows there is something wrong with the whole system, but they can't think about it too much or they would go crazy in this messed up society we live in. I know that for the longest time even this unicorn couldn't think about it too much. There are so many easily available distractions that can help take the mind off the deep-seated pain of knowing there is something wrong with humanity, with society and with the way humans choose to run things and not being able to articulate it. It is not so much that they are fine with it, but that the only way to cover up the pain is to ignore it until someone else comes along and takes back their stolen wealth. Will that person be hailed as a hero? Considered a treasonous terrorist? Who knows, but what I do know is...

Taxation is theft.