Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Apr 27, 2014 10:18:07 GMT 5.5
A couple of days ago, a friend of mine received royalties from one of her books after the 10% tax deduction. Our discussion widened to cover government incomes to at least theoretically keep a state independent and sovereign. We pay our 10% income tax in return for the government’s keeping at least our income security—they bind the firms we work for by law for our security. We owe much to our society, our government. At the same time, there are many tax dodges. Many people, many ministers and many people of power dodge taxes, and that affects the nation at large. But we, I and my friend, decided to pay tax, even when we see ways to avoid it. Honesty is not doing the right thing when you cannot avoid it. Dishonest people do a lot of things in the way they should be done, because they cannot help doing them differently. It takes a moral courage to choose the right path when you have the option also for a dishonest path with personal/selfish gains.
We owe much to our society, and paying tax is one way to pay part of our depth. Socrates paid is debt by his death, when death (if you have incurred it by something you do in a social context) is the hugest price life can pay, and when you have paid it away, nothing remains of your life. Our survival instinct works so strongly in us that death even unimaginable in our so dishonest social context. Dignity is not that valuable against something that enhances life, that gives you some gains. Your jumping at these tiny gains, at the expense of dignity, is triggered by nothing but your biological survival instinct at play in a social context, and when biological survival instinct is mixed with the value system of a society, it manifests itself in myriad of forms, and walks economic, psychological, political, etc paths. Those who are true to their own sense of virtue and justice, who do not tread the trodden path of social animalistic survival, they are fools in the eyes of the survival-wise people.
Was Socrates a fool that he gave away his life when he had the option of running away from Athens and of pleading guilty to receive a pardon and live? What will you do if you face death, and if you have the options of living, if you betray your own truth, if you discard what you think is your truth at the most important moment of your life? Socrates was not a fool.
Metaphorically, all of us, here in India and particularly in Manipur, are facing our death every moment. For the sake of survival, we are lying, we are being lied to, we are bribing, we are being bribed, we are doing what we think are wrong. Every day. Why? Each of us thinks everybody is doing wrong, and I won’t survive if I alone remain truthful in this world of the survival of the fittest. Each one of us thinks every other person is untrustworthy. No one believes anybody beyond their family. Is our world so bad? Really? Do you really think our world is so bad? Do you think you are unreliable? Nobody can trust you, because you are selfish, and you won’t mind being dishonorable to your friend to the extent of jumping at something profitable at the first opportunity? Is no sense of honor left in your heart? No love left?
For some reason, I don’t quite agree that you are wholly dishonorable, wholly untrustworthy. I’m not naïve either, in this. I know you do not believe me, but if we are friends, live through certain things for quite some time, I believe you will give yourself a chance to live trust-worthily, if I prove myself trustworthy all that while. Do I sound religious? No! I mean if you get an extended chance of being honest to yourself, then you will be honest, good, trustworthy. And if it works for you, it will work for all of us. Then, I deduct, there is hope for trust, honor and love in our world. We can blame each other, but the problem is in each of us all. In the same way, the solution for a healthier society is also in each of us.
To be continued…
We owe much to our society, and paying tax is one way to pay part of our depth. Socrates paid is debt by his death, when death (if you have incurred it by something you do in a social context) is the hugest price life can pay, and when you have paid it away, nothing remains of your life. Our survival instinct works so strongly in us that death even unimaginable in our so dishonest social context. Dignity is not that valuable against something that enhances life, that gives you some gains. Your jumping at these tiny gains, at the expense of dignity, is triggered by nothing but your biological survival instinct at play in a social context, and when biological survival instinct is mixed with the value system of a society, it manifests itself in myriad of forms, and walks economic, psychological, political, etc paths. Those who are true to their own sense of virtue and justice, who do not tread the trodden path of social animalistic survival, they are fools in the eyes of the survival-wise people.
Was Socrates a fool that he gave away his life when he had the option of running away from Athens and of pleading guilty to receive a pardon and live? What will you do if you face death, and if you have the options of living, if you betray your own truth, if you discard what you think is your truth at the most important moment of your life? Socrates was not a fool.
Metaphorically, all of us, here in India and particularly in Manipur, are facing our death every moment. For the sake of survival, we are lying, we are being lied to, we are bribing, we are being bribed, we are doing what we think are wrong. Every day. Why? Each of us thinks everybody is doing wrong, and I won’t survive if I alone remain truthful in this world of the survival of the fittest. Each one of us thinks every other person is untrustworthy. No one believes anybody beyond their family. Is our world so bad? Really? Do you really think our world is so bad? Do you think you are unreliable? Nobody can trust you, because you are selfish, and you won’t mind being dishonorable to your friend to the extent of jumping at something profitable at the first opportunity? Is no sense of honor left in your heart? No love left?
For some reason, I don’t quite agree that you are wholly dishonorable, wholly untrustworthy. I’m not naïve either, in this. I know you do not believe me, but if we are friends, live through certain things for quite some time, I believe you will give yourself a chance to live trust-worthily, if I prove myself trustworthy all that while. Do I sound religious? No! I mean if you get an extended chance of being honest to yourself, then you will be honest, good, trustworthy. And if it works for you, it will work for all of us. Then, I deduct, there is hope for trust, honor and love in our world. We can blame each other, but the problem is in each of us all. In the same way, the solution for a healthier society is also in each of us.
To be continued…