“Paying Taxes: It’s Just Routine”

What begins as a discussion about the utility of taxes ends up as an indictment of bureaucracy. In detailing a life that spans from clerical work to prison internment, Meyerding offers first-hand accounts of how routine procedures — a hallmark of productive efficiency — are a dehumanizing force that allows individuals to absolve themselves of a sense of responsibility for the collective consequences of their actions.

Originally published in issue 13.