Pay taxes and be party to evil

In light of the tax burden and the proposed draconian measures to facilitate collection, should we band together for a wholesale evasion of taxes and duties to remind the government of the famous 1773 protest against taxation, the Boston Tea Party, which served to rally support for the American Revolution?

It is obvious that our culture needs to undergo fundamental or revolutionary change if we are to have any hope of becoming a civilized and enlightened society. Ranked 25 in The Failed States Index 2007, we are in danger of becoming a Zimbabwe or a Darfur, both of which are a reminder that not every culture is conducive to the advancement of: liberty, the nobility of heart, and the dignity of mind.
Some cultures are positively ill suited for such advancement; their customary ways accomplish all but the destruction of the spirit of man as an animal having the powers of thinking, knowing, and of pursuing ideals. Such cultures are freakish artefacts, having emerged in utter ignorance of the structure of the world and of all that is in it.

It can hardly be doubted that we find ourselves in a world where scientific method is the sole means of securing knowledge, historical insights and philosophic wisdom, where the sweetness of human happiness is indivisible from moral nobility, and where acting with foresight and the forming of voluntary associations, which might be ennobled by friendship, are inextricably interwoven with liberty.

In the world in which we find ourselves, there is also Sri Lanka where its dominant cultures are clearly having a ruinous effect on the human spirit. We are a nation of 20 million or more souls of the most pedestrian sort, among whom no noteworthy leader of either thought or action has yet emerged. Many of us are enslaved by the need for divination, magic and witchcraft. We have no arts of leisure to write home about, and our busy arts are mediocre. We have no tradition of science and philosophy, and we are not seen pursing ideals to seek value or spiritual meaning.

It is difficult to discern what contribution we have made in the past, by way of either thought or action, to keep alive the awareness of both the dignity and the greatness of the human spirit. It is clear, however, that if Sri Lanka were to be drowned in the Indian Ocean tomorrow, the world stands to gain by the loss of many an ungodly and vicious soul, while losing nothing by way of civilizing customs and traditions, or of brilliant examples of moral nobility and intellectual dignity.

Take the practical working out of our shared sense of good and evil, just and unjust, as seen in our form of government. Ours is said to be a representative democracy, but our representatives govern in their own interest rather than in the interest of those whom they represent. The actual habits of governance to which we are accustomed have made us regard citizens, as submissive subjects of a power above them at whose altar the subjects must sacrifice the fruits of their labour.

Our political landscape recently underwent another layer of filthying with the descent on it of a new political grouping armed with a depraved apology. Our social system is one of patronage and favouritism, and we are accustomed to being sycophantic to secure our well-being. We are highly skilled, and take delight, in the art of putting a price on everyone, from doormen to presidents, and when the price seems too steep, many of us naturally resort to the use of intimidation and brute force. Some say we are a cynical, degenerate and base lot but we are convinced that we are one lot of clever and practical people.

The elegant edifice of organized freedom superimposed on our oriental habits of sycophancy and cynicism by the civilizing hand of colonialism is fast crumbling, at least partly aided and abetted by the reign of terror championed by savage psychopaths of separatism, and by the scum of the earth who have been administering the nation’s counterterrorism strategy.

The worsening of the already prevalent sense of spiritual defeat has failed to inspire in the leaders of our fragmented society a sense of urgency to unite citizens as political partners. In fact, communal hatred is ripe even among the society’s elite, making even relationships between businesses and professionals something shaped by ethnic distrust.

Again, take our economic dynamism and potential. Ravaged by statism and inflation, our economy is destroying the family fabric of the most courageous of our poor by forcing many of them to be torn apart from their families to eke out a scanty livelihood in servitude outside the homeland. Even our businesses are looking elsewhere for their survival, and doing so not so much in the manner of, say, Microsoft expanding into China, as much as in the manner of professionals migrating to improve their purchasing power.

Our nation is reasserting vigorously its oriental ways and aims, after having been briefly blown off course under colonial command. Today it is a miserable nation where, to all intents and purposes, taxation is without representation. Is it, therefore, morally responsible to pay taxes and duties that, together with foreign aid, help sustain the horrifyingly wicked effect that our social and political systems have on our people?