Once again these past few days the blatant corruption and outright evil of governments everywhere has been exposed for the entire world to see. This time in the entire Cyprus bailout fiasco that has come to the forefront of financial news.

For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, the government of Cyprus requires a bailout from the international community.

However, one of the requirements was that Cyprus raise some of the money itself. And what was the planned method of raising this money? Tax everyone’s savings accounts.

The government was basically going to confiscate six to 10 percent of everyone’s savings accounts.

Needless to say, the thought of having their hard earned savings plundered by the government sent the citizens of Cyprus into quite a tizzy.

But of course the government could not allow the people to withdraw their money from the banks en masse before the money could be pilfered. Therefore, the government declared a bank holiday to be in effect until March 26 so that no banks will be open for business.

The original deal did not pass the parliament; however, now more deals are being floated about with the main focus of ideas being to tax accounts of over 100,000 Euros 20 to 25 percent.

However, there was no need for those with friends in high places to fear.

The Daily Mail reports that according to the Cyprus paper Filelftheros, friends of the President of Cyprus, Nikos Anastasiades, were warned about the possibility of bank accounts being plundered and that therefore they were able to withdraw their funds. The Daily Mail reports that Italian media claim that 4.5 billion Euros left Cyprus the week before the financial fiasco hit.

The people of Cyprus clearly have a right to be upset. It is hard to look at the idea of taxing bank accounts as anything but outright theft. I would not be surprised if come Tuesday morning, everyone drains their savings account and hides their money under their mattress.

In the end, however, the people of Cyprus will have no one but themselves to blame.

The people tolerate normal government taxation and extortion.

But whenever a slightly more overt form of highway robbery comes along the people get upset.

And what do the people do? They protest in the streets. They may even break some windows and fight with some riot police. But to what end?

The government could have taxed everyone at 50 percent of their savings and not much would change.

Sure the government might shuffle around some and some politicians might be booted out of office in shame but the evil cancer of government will still be there just as before as indomitable and supreme as ever.

Street violence and angry protest will do nothing to end the state.

That is because the state is not the policeman or the government bureaucrat or even the president of anywhere.

The state is only within people’s minds. When the people wake up and realize that the state is just a gang of thieves worthy of derision rather than respect that is when the state shall lose its power. Not by angry mobs yelling for the figurehead to be replaced.