The Beginnings of The State

Before even embarking on discussion of the notion of taxation, the dialogue (or monologue) must be preceded by some discussion of the entity that purports to have the power to tax.

In the first instance, there were kings, queens, princes and other noble characters.  Actually, there was much that happened before that, but we'll start right there, since the existence of kingdoms was very nearly the immediate predecessor to the state.  I'll deal with the rise of kings and noblemen in another post, as it too is inextricably intertwined with the false legitimacy of the state.

So monarchs ruled over people, with the help of their henchmen (usually having familial ties) and attempted to stretch the extent of their power and expand their sense of empire as far as their messengers could travel.  And message was usually all it took, to convince the relatively uneducated populace that siding with this particular group of thugs was in their best interests.  For the majority of the non-blue-blooded population, little advanced from subsistence means - most likely lacking any significant means of self-defense and probably any sense of collective power - the choice to join the dark side was an obvious one.  It made sense at some raw and immediate level to go along with "the program", or at least to be seen doing so.  If it hadn't been that way, the political landscape might have looked more like this:

Of course, how wonderfully free we would have been, if the masses had possessed this sort of ability to recognize and stand up against the arbitrary assertion of power.  Alas, the majority most likely suppressed the vocal minority (if there was any), pretty much because we seem to be hard wired that way:

So I ask you to suppress any urge to rationalize what you're reading here against your current world view, and to follow with an open mind.