John Locke an Open Letter

John Locke

An open letter to the New Orleans Government, from the New Orleans Civil Society:

It has come to your attention that we, the citizenry of New Orleans, have taken action today to begin refusing to pay our taxes, specifically our property taxes, which we know are valuable sources of your finances. It is in understanding that the government's funds are to be allocated for the provision of social services and other measures that require the preservation of peace, order, and functionality among New Orleans citizens. However, present events showed that despite the willingness of the citizens to be subjected to this kind of tax, there has been no corresponding action or trade-off that the government offered to the citizenry, actions that explicitly shows that the people's money are being spent on important and urgent concerns of the state.

Yes, what we are doing is a revolt against you, the government. We are revolting not because we want to oust every official or politician in the government; we are revolting because we want to remind you that you have just breached the social contract the government and the civil society has entered into. In this social contract, we allowed you to take a certain level of control of our civil liberties, such as paying for real property taxes, since we know that this contract and the payment of the taxes would benefit the civil society in its attempt to become highly-developed and progressive. In this letter, we will be referring to the works of John Locke, whom we believe echoes our sentiments as members of the civil society at the moment. The words of Locke will remind you of your duties as the chosen representative to take care of the civil society's entrusted liberties and properties -- that indeed, the absence of response from our grievances is an illustration of a breach of this social contract we have agreed upon to enter.

Let me remind you Locke's discussion of this social contract in the Second Treatise on Government. He asserted, "[f]or the end of civil society being to avoid and remedy those inconveniences of the state of Nature which necessarily follow from every man's being judge in his own case, by setting up a known authority to which every one of that society may appeal upon any injury received, or controversy that may arise, and which every one of the society ought to obey..." We believed that much like the illustration of a monarchy that Locke demonstrated in Treatise, the government has become more of a monarchy than an assigned representative of the civil society. By refusing to accomplish your function and task of allocating people's money for social services and other programs for development, you have proven yourself an independent agent that does not take into consideration people's opinions and welfare.

We refuse to be "governed" by someone like you, who behaved the same way as monarchs do. We refuse to engage in a social contract with you, an independent agent who cannot safeguard the entrusted liberties of the people of New Orleans. We refuse to give up, once more, our liberties and properties to you, who, after years of governance, has failed to eliminate feelings of restlessness and dissatisfaction among the citizenry. We refuse to be governed by someone who allowed the crime rate in this state to increase steadily over time. We refuse to be governed by someone who made it look like social services is a privilege to be given at a cost rather than consider it as a citizen's right to have.

And so we revolt. Locke is with us in this, agreeing that indeed, you have usurped the rights of every New Orleans citizen, and made it yours to own. We revolt by refusing to pay our property taxes, the simplest way, perhaps, for us to remind you that property is one of the basic rights that we have entrusted to you through the social contract. And because you breached the conditions set in this social contract, we are now taking full ownership, once again, of our liberties and properties that we had entrusted you. This condition of civil society was illustrated concretely in Treatise, and if you do not recall Locke's reminders on this, let me help you recall his wisdom: "...but whenever his property is invaded by the will and order of his monarch, he has not only no appeal, as those in society ought to have, but, as if he were degraded from the common state of rational creatures, is denied a liberty to judge of, or defend his right, and so is exposed to all the misery and inconveniencies that a man can fear from one..."

This is the state we are in at the moment. New Orleans is in a state of strife, as we, the citizenry find ourselves in conflict with you, the government. We are miserable because of the gradual decline of growth and progress in our state, attributed by the lack of support from the government to combat society's problems. This revolt that we decided to initiate would continue if you do not address the problems we have enumerated. And if, after a given period, these problems remain unattended, further measures will be initiated from the Civil Society, and we would bravely go so far as to say that these measures could include the possible ouster of all members of the government. We need to abolish the monarchial government that has developed in our state through the years, and a society built on mutual trust and common goals will be reinstated.

You might say that we are still obliged, as citizens, to remain governed by the government. That, as citizens it is our duty to pay our taxes to the government. We now say to all these allegations, we have the right to refuse and create our own assembly. Why? Because you have violated and committed the first breach in the social contract. We are just acting upon what we have witnessed as happening in our society, and we firmly and strongly believe that the civil society should take the necessary steps for the government to shape up, or else, grave consequences could result to a misalignment of the government's and civil society's agenda and goals. I know that we do not have to concretely identify these consequences to you. Let us just reiterate that our decision to refuse payment of property taxes is ours to decide, because, as Locke stated, we are 'master by ourselves,' "proprietor of his own person, and the actions or labour of it, had still in himself the great foundation of property..."