Chickens and Conscience

So Dad is talking about chickens and babies and also has this nice bit "I’m more than ever sure that at least for me war is wrong and I’m sure that it si wrong for the world as a way to settle differences. I can’t see anything in a religion that lets people kill other people and in some cases strengthens them." I am wondering about conscience and it's role in society. I heard from the folks at the tax advocacy place, who said the Secretary has found "Frivolous submissions include situations in which the taxpayer declines '...to pay taxes if the taxpayer disagrees with the government's use of tax revenue, ...'". this is a new definition put out in 2010. So I fall squarely into this definition because I am not willingly paying the taxes which go to the current wars being waged by the US government. I do not argue with this. The question I have is the use of the frivolous filing penalty to squash or control people of conscience. I want to raise the question is a society better off if it discourages and tries to stamp out conscience completely or will it be better off if it allows for people of conscience to speak up? I reread Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience, he asks about the Government, "why does it not cherish its wise minority?" and "A very few,,,serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it." As I read these wonderful men's words I felt both encouraged and discouraged. All the things I am concerned about go back centuries. I reread some of John Woolman also, he and others wrote about refusing to pay taxes for wars before the revolutionary war. In all cases, all were concerned about what King labels "the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism". His full quote is: "When machines and computers, profits and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
So I am thinking about conscience and today's society and what I will do next with the good people at the Internal Revenue Service. I will call the man at the tax advocacy place tomorrow and see who I can contact in terms of an appeal. I have a little mantra I have chanted about this situation: it isn't about me, I did not ask for this situation, way will open.