I'm late to reply, but I appreciate the core of what you're saying here. In the end, the most powerful changes are the ones we make to ourselves. We are better off when we turn our utopianism inward. Give Caesar his due, because Caesar is surely not going away in this lifetime. And then spend the rest of the day according to the principles of a "reformed heart" (to borrow, and possibly abuse, your term.)
In other words: C'mon people let's be realistic. If you want to be effective, you've got to have an accurate estimation of the situation you're dealing with. Get a good read and proceed accordingly. Which means pay your taxes. You can't upend the system from inside a prison cell. Unless you're Nelson Mandela. And you're not Nelson Mandela.