| The True Believer |
Because of my efforts to respond
to questions about international tax law in my free newsletter (The Jacobs Report), I
frequently receive emails from readers accusing me of enormous
ignorance of the law because each of the writers knows with great
certainty that the government has deceived us and tricked us into
paying income taxes when in fact (they contend) we have no obligation
to pay any income taxes whatsoever.
I rarely respond any more
because when I have responded to similar letters in the past, they (1)
ignore my arguments, or (2) impugn my intelligence, or (3) dispute my
efforts to discover the real truth of the issue or (4) dismiss me as
being a prostitute for the IRS.
Every time I get one of these
letters, I am reminded of the book, "The
True Believer" by Eric Hoffer. Hoffer describes the True Believer as a guilt ridden
hitchhiker who thumbs a ride on any cause from ultra-conservatism to
communism, who is a modern fanatic needing a Hitler or Castro to die
for. They operate on great faith and are not moved by any appeal to
reason. And they desperately want to believe that there is some cosmic
conspiracy whereby everyone else in the world has been duped. Or, they
believe themselves to be the child who has seen that the emperor wears
no clothes.
In terms of tax matters, they buy into arguments by clever hustlers that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was never properly ratified, that the income tax only applies to employees of the U.S. government, that the income tax only applies to corporations, etc., etc., etc, -- without end. Efforts to dispute their claims fall on deaf ears and are met with new arguments. Worse, each response merely encourages them to persist now that they have an audience.
They blithely ignore the fact that numerous tax protestors have spent time in jail and they ignore all of the court cases in which the U.S. courts have found against virtually every conceivable argument or claim that seeks to repudiate the income tax. They denigrate the integrety of the courts and then seek to pursue their claims through the same courts that have refused to hear similar claims and have imposed penalties for wasting the time of the court with frivolous cases.
In terms of tax matters, they buy into arguments by clever hustlers that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was never properly ratified, that the income tax only applies to employees of the U.S. government, that the income tax only applies to corporations, etc., etc., etc, -- without end. Efforts to dispute their claims fall on deaf ears and are met with new arguments. Worse, each response merely encourages them to persist now that they have an audience.
They blithely ignore the fact that numerous tax protestors have spent time in jail and they ignore all of the court cases in which the U.S. courts have found against virtually every conceivable argument or claim that seeks to repudiate the income tax. They denigrate the integrety of the courts and then seek to pursue their claims through the same courts that have refused to hear similar claims and have imposed penalties for wasting the time of the court with frivolous cases.
Eric Hoffer presents a sad
but very logical explanation of how the true believers can be so
resistant to reason or just plain good sense.
Vern Jacobs
Vern Jacobs
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