Contempt of Conscience
Contempt of Conscience is a project started by Joe Jenkins before he joined the Peace Tax Seven and the ongoing campaign for a judicial review has become a major part of it.In early 2003, at a US air force base in England as B-52′s bombers prepare to bomb Iraq, a Welsh Weapons Inspector is stopped and searched under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
In recalling the words of a Secretary of State at another massive anti war demonstration: Let them march all they want as long as they continue to pay their taxes, the Inspector hangs up his de-contamination outfit and dons a suit to take on the Inland Revenue.
He refuses to pay his income tax arguing that compelling taxpayers to pay for acts of deliberate killing they profoundly disagree with, is a violation of the law.
As a campaign grows to change the law there is vehement opposition as the State insists that a peace tax would set a dangerous precedent.
Too often war is associated with deaths and statistics and audiences miss out on some of the more subtle but complex issues associated with it. This film opens up these issues and creates new insights! – Head of Philosophy and Ethics, Sir William Perkins School.
Contempt of Conscience is a documentary about the formation, and goals of, a group of conscientious objectors called The Peace Tax Seven.
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Arnold VinetteI enjoyed this video and the dedication of the small segment of Britons to stick up for their beliefs and convictions for not wanting to support the war in Iraq.
These people were NOT against paying for a homeland defense, but they were against the wholesale slaughter of innocent human beings in Iraq who may have already been suppressed by their dictator Saddam Hussein.
What is known about the Gulf War is now becoming more clear as the years go by and what many people myself included have forgotten is what happened before desert storm when Iraq invaded Kuwait and upon their exit blew up most of the oil well heads creating an enormous ecological disaster.
And when it comes to war itself it is simply an innate part of the human existence that has come about because of our larger brain. I agree with "gray area" comments above that Fear=War and War=Fear to some extent.
War also has a lot to do with male testosterone and the nature of some individuals to want absolute control and absolute dominance. This personality trait seems to exist in numerous males that slowly make their way to higher and higher levels of power in a society.
A society can exist because there are those who lead and those who follow. If a country's leader / leaders are successful they can manage large groups of people under them to do what they want.
In the case of Desert Storm there were two objectives that needed to be obtained.
1. Western powers needed to get control of the Iraqi light crude oil reserves. This included the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and Europe. Why? Iraq represented the second largest resource of light crude oil in the world. It is the easiest oil to pump out of the ground, refine, and sell to make a profit. Saddam Hussein had taken control of the western oil company oil assets in Iraq and was not all that eager to commit to selling all of the oil to the United States. With other oil resources starting to decline the United States government had to take action to ensure that the continued oil industrial complex in the United States and around the world continued to survive.
Mexico's Cantarell Oil Complex is now in catastrophic decline and will be exhausted in 2020. Mexico Peak oil was 1981.
Saudi Arabia has over stated its oil reserves by 300 billion barrels of oil. Saudi Arabia has now effectively peaked. Exhaustion is expected between 2030 and 2040.
Domestic United States oil reserves peaked in 1975. Exhaustion is expected by 2020.
Britain depends on the North Sea Oil complex. This complex also peaked in the 2000's and is now facing complete exhaustion by 2020. Depletion rate is 20% to 30% a year.
Canada has sufficient tar sands oil to support the United States until 2020 until this resource runs out.
Worldwide Peak Oil was reached in June 2006. The world has been at Peak Oil now for 4 years. In 2011 the world begins its descent down the Peak Oil curve. What this means is that there will be insufficient oil to meet worldwide demand.
The modern economies of the United States, Britain, Canada and Europe depend upon the availability of affordable oil supplies.
31 billion barrels of oil is consumed globally on a yearly basis.
http://planetforlife.com/oilcr... (2008 data now 3 years old)
According to BP (British Petroleum)[2] world oil reserves stand at 1238 billion barrels. At present (2008) yearly world oil production stands at 31 billion barrels. There is enough oil to last 40 years if production holds constant and no new oil is found. According to BP, the Middle East has 61% of the world's oil reserves. Africa has 9.6% and the Russian Federation has 6.4%. The two countries sharing borders with the United States, Mexico and Canada, together have only 3.2%. Venezeula, a short distance away via oil tanker, has 7%
The United States possesses 2.6% of the worlds oil reserves while it consumes 24% of the world's oil production.
Although the United States has only 2.4% of the world's oil, it produces 9.2%. If the production rate could be maintained, the oil will be gone in 11 years. The figures for Canada are the same and they are worse for Mexico. The Middle East has enough oil to last 88 years at present production rates. Africa has 33 years. Clearly the United States will be increasingly dependent on oil imported from those places. It is impossible to consider oil independence in light of these numbers.
The majority of the world's oil comes from old oil fields. For example, Kuwait still supplies 3% of the world's oil from a 70 year old field. The world's largest oil field, Ghawar, a 57 year old oil field, still supplies 5% of the world's oil.? The North Sea (discovered in 1963) was exploited very quickly and is now in steep decline. Alaska's Prudhoe Bay (discovered in 1968) is now a trickle.
Oil varies greatly in quality. Some oil is so light and sweet (low in sulfur) it can be pumped directly into the fuel tank of a Diesel truck. Some oil is more like tar and it may contain sulfur. It's hard to transport and natural gas may be needed to refine it into useful fuel. The oil from Manifa, a large oil field in Iran, is an extreme example. It contains so much sulfur and vanadium it can't be refined using today's technology. The average quality of oil is declining because the best quality was produced first.
Oil varies greatly in accessibility. It is convenient to access Kuwaiti oil. Oil tankers in the Persian Gulf load from nearby Kuwaiti oil wells. It is inconvenient to access oil from the north slope of Alaska. It was necessary to build an 800 mile pipeline over mountains and permafrost to reach the oil in Prudhoe Bay. Oil drilling platforms can reach oil in mile deep water but only at great expense in money terms and in energy terms. There is oil in the arctic but oil drilling platforms will have to deal with ice and deep water to access it.
The remaining oil will be expensive and difficult to produce, refine andtransport.?
2. The second reason for the Gulf War was to attack, invade and occupy Afghanistan for the purpose of securing an oil and natural gas pipeline route from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan, down through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea.
At the Arabian Sea oil and processed natural gas would be shipped to the United States, Canada, Britain, and Europe.
Turkmenistan is located in the Caspian Basin area which holds the last large reservoirs of oil on Earth.
Western oil companies and the United States government were unable to negotiate agreements with the local governing Taliban government / leaders that would ensure a safe oil and natural gas pipeline route and so they were forced to go and take control of the land in order to do this.
3. In order to get the American, British, Canadian, Australian and European people on board with the attack of Iraq and Afghanistan the a domestic terrorist attack was planned on the obsolete twin World Trade Center Towers and a fortified section of the Pentagon.
The attack planned at the highest levels of US Government or similar authoritative bodies was successfully carried out and then blamed on foreign terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan who had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Anger and rage was successfully increased by the mass media around the world and the leaders of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Desert storm was then launched and both Iraq and Afghanistan were attacked, invaded and occupied.
4. The military operation was a complete success and now Western oil companies have control of Iraqi oil which they sell to the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Afghanistan has been less of a success as there are still problems with the Taliban and frequent attacks on western troops trying to secure an area for the oil and natural gas pipeline that will go from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan, down through Pakistan to the Arabian sea.
What this means for tax payers in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe is that they have been supporting an energy war to try and secure oil supplies to last them at least until 2030.
The world can shift of oil without a problem based on the other information I have been reading, however the oil companies do not want this as this is where they earn their revenue and profits.
And in our current capitalistic society money runs the show. Government leaders are put into power by oil companies in order to serve their interests.
The ironic thing about money is that it is fabricated out of thin air by a single private company charged with creating it. If anyone does any research on where money comes from it will make you shake your head in disbelief. The origin of money came up when people were concerned about the the huge compound interest bearing debts that countries owed to... who?
In reality a country does not need to tax its citizens to pay for any war. The whole idea of taxation is ridiculous because countries create money out of thin air to lend to to you through the banks.
So if a government really needed to, it would simply print the money it needed to pay its soldiers and the military equipment it needs to fight a war. Money all comes from the same place, thin air.
The greatest gift humanity will receive in 2030 is finally the collapse of the oil industry.
In the meantime expect fierce wars for oil resources to erupt between 2015 and 2030 for the remaining oil supplies around the Caspian Basin and the Middle East.
China, Japan and Russia all have their own requirements for oil and natural gas and they just cannot sit by to see themselves excluded in the rush to grab the last oil supplies.
Russia is currently in the process of spending 20 trillion rubles by 2020 to upgrade its military to defend its oil reserves in Siberia and the Caspian Basin area.
Billions are being spent by Saudi Arabia and the other Middle East oil states to protect their reserves.
And in the future Venezuela will more than likely do the same.
By 2030 though the oil economy we now enjoy to power our modern day industrial infrastructure will no longer exist. Between the years of 2020 and 2030 based on the oil reservoir data and consumption data, the oil industry will be collapsing and along with it the oil based economy and the financial based economy.
Expect a much simpler way of life by 2030.
A way of life that will not include taxes to fight oil wars as there will be no oil to fight over.
Instead the fight will be for food and survival.
Arnold Vinette
Ottawa, Canada- Cool E Beans@Anthony and Philosopher87. I have seen all of the Zeitgeist movies and the entire Century of the Self many times and they are about two different things.
Think of it this way. You are in a casino playing blackjack. Century of the Self is an examination of the interaction between you and the dealer where you are the individual and the dealer is the manipulator using psychology in its many forms to influence you and your actions.
Zeitgeist is trying to explain to you that even as you are playing blackjack with the dealer, it is the house who sets the rules that you are playing by and even though you are interacting with the dealer, even the dealer must play using the house rules. He who sets the rules wins the game and in our society, he who controls the money makes the rules and is trying to finish winning the game.
War is a racket, and even those who wage war never fight in it. Governments go to war but it is its soldier-citizenry who does the fighting and the dieing. I would rather see the Presidents of each waring nation duke it out in a sanctioned sparing match instead of anyone killing or being killed over any percieved dispute. And as the banking system finances both sides anyway, as all banking must be connected world wide, they come out ahead financially no matter who wins or who dies. 
Epicurean_Logic, Tongue-tied & twisted, just an eathbound misfit I.Really enjoyed this!
It is good to see these guys follow their beliefs in the certain knowledge that crushing defeat was coming their way. Even in the face of legal defeat they have won. The raising of awareness that war and murder of innocents is never ok is an amazing achievement.
I have to also say kudos to the Quaker's. Hundreds of years of conscientious objection to war is really admirable. Hats off.- BrianAll I can say is that if you people read some philosophy you can have solved this problem hundreds of years ago lol. Humans are greedy, complacent consumers, but only because society is constructed so. In our culture being "more, better, faster" is best, Peace is when people can discuss solutions before killing each other as if it was a solution. Hume on subjectivism, Hobbes on State of Nature, Aristotle on the mediate means, these 3 all have answers, and none involve killing innocent people. The world is a stage and we're all actors, but some of us feel like the audience, remember, we're all actors and we all have a role to play...but who decides? There is no path to peace, PEACE IS THE PATH.
- Cool E BeansI know that the American government collects taxes from individuals for two reasons. Site the 16th Ammendment.
1) To provide for the common defense
2) To pay the interest on the national debt
As the war we are in is not in defense of our country (see all documentaries on 9/11), then all of the money is being spent to pay an interest payment. As Animadversion stated in comment 27, the government uses deficite spending for the war and the peoples taxes to pay the interest on that spending, but to whom?
Watch all of the documentaries on money to know that it all goes to the reserve banking systems of each respective country and England has the first and biggest system of them all. War makes money for the bankers, the arms manufactures and the reconstruction companies.
Read the tax code for your respective country. For England, only Lords and Ladies are the taxable individuals as the rest of you are serfs. This is why big earners such as Sir Paul McCartny and Sir Elton John were knighted as they had the clout to find out about it and refuse to pay but now they can't.
For America, only those who are paid by the American government are required to pay taxes as a condition of their EMPLOYMENT as EMPLOYEES being paid WAGES. These capitalized words are specifically defined in the code...find them...learn what the code says. Everybody else uses the tax codes' 'voluntary compliance' feature even if they don't know that they are using it.
Another cool feature is that even if you work for a company that contracts with the government and you earn less than half of your income from the government in a 31 day period, all of your income is called 'non-wages' for that period and is not taxable unless you volunteer it. There are eleven 31 day periods in a year excluding holidays and two weeks vacation. 31 x 11 = 341 + 14(vacation) = 355 + 10(holidays) = 365
2011 Federal Holidays
Federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) establishes the following public holidays for Federal employees. Please note that most Federal employees work on a Monday through Friday schedule. For these employees, when a holiday falls on a nonworkday -- Saturday or Sunday -- the holiday usually is observed on Monday (if the holiday falls on Sunday) or Friday (if the holiday falls on Saturday).
Friday, December 31, 2010* New Year’s Day
Monday, January 17 Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, February 21** Washington’s Birthday
Monday, May 30 Memorial Day
Monday, July 4 Independence Day
Monday, September 5 Labor Day
Monday, October 10 Columbus Day
Friday, November 11 Veterans Day
Thursday, November 24 Thanksgiving Day
Monday, December 26*** Christmas Day
My personal protest was to not work a day in 2008 and apply for a full and complete refund of taxes withheld in 2009 (including SS and Medicare as these apply only to taxable income and mine isn't). Still waiting for that refund. - @someone I don't agree with
Here's where I put in a catchy rebuttal to try to throw you off. Then I'll type in a few things in response that I believe are facts and may or may not be true, but I'll put them here anyway. This is where I backlash about the comment you said about something silly that I said prior, thinking that it would matter in the comments section, when I should know that it doesn't. Now I'm going to wrap up by quoting a well-known individual and top it off with a catchy outro-line and a historical or religious saying.
Doesn't matter stop arguing. - dustyfootobserverHeartfelt reply.
Citation of section i enjoyed. - @migrantworker
well.. if you wanna go back that far, Christians had their killing sprees as well as many other extremist groups. Thing is I don't fear some extremists.. they are not the ones killing thousands of people and destroying the lives of millions.. right now, our governments are doing this, and we are just fueling the fire of hatred.
I doubt that any current attack on the west will have much to do with the fifteenth century. that is just reaching for an easy "they hate us cos we're free" type answer as opposed to facing the facts that we are killing them, and they want revenge. - migrantworkerMelinda,
I do not believe any barriers to peacful coexistence, with all peoples, are insurmountable. We must always back our pragmatism with optimism. We can get there as a humanity, but it will not happen if we deny that there are those willing to kill to enforce their agenda. To our shame, we must be willing to meet force with force... for now. Perhaps one day we will be able to lay down arms and agree to disagree, but until then we do not help the cause of peace by standing by while intolerant ideologies proliferate. - MelindaI believe we can all agree that war is horrible and should be avoided. The question on my mind is how?
If we could drop all international boarders tomorrow, and could shift all available resources to needed areas, how would you ensure that those same resources get to the hands of the needy?
How does one go about establishing a cohesive structure to govern distribution? Would not out differing views both religious, and cultural present an almost insurmountable barrier?
Would we also have to do away with private property ownership to ensure access to all available resources?
I do not have the answer but I would love to hear the views of those around me.
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