News+and+politics religion philosophy the cynic librarian: More Reasons Not to Vote

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

More Reasons Not to Vote

Besides the rather obvious remark that the system of govt we now live under is broken, I suggest that the break become even greater until it becomes so obvious that people are forced to take sides. Then they will either become violent or seek some more reasonable alternatives and solutions. As in personal growth so in politics, crisis is good for self-knowledge.

Leftists should threaten the Dems with not voting in the next round of elections unless they shift farther to the left. The demands should be as radical as possible, e.g., renouncing blanket support for Israel's policies, recognition of Iran's right to protect itself, universal healthcare, another raise in the minimum wage, etc.

Too many people are too comfy and apathetic in either their Republican anxiousness or their "sympathetic" Democratic anxiousness. We need to knock these people into the real world and see which way they fall when the shit hits the fan.

A voter strike simply echoes the majority will; that is, a majority of eleigible voters don't vote anyway. People seem to be blase about that fact. According to my crude calculations, for example, Bush received less percentage of votes than did Hitler. This might be a fact that's revisable, since I had no data on the percentage of eligible voters in Germany at the time.

The point of such research, though, is to show that we do not live in anything resembling a democracy, if that is supposed to mean where the leaders are voted in by a majority of the public.

My experience in electoral politics of the Leftist kind lends credence to the idea that even Democratic supporters--those with money and inluence--see the rabble as rabble. The kind of direction to the country believed in by these people is something akin to benevolent guidance since the rabble obviously can't even make it in real life so how can they be expected to make responsible political decisions?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just finished reading the last Harry Potter book. You're going to say, what does that have to do with this? I believe it has a lot to do with the feeling that people have right now. Near the end it had a sentence which was almost exactly the same thought I had a few days before starting to read this book. That power should be in the hands of those that do not seek it. Rather, that it is best to leave power in those that did not actively want it. This next election, I think, will be a time to see if we really do need a new system entirely or not.

Faustus and FrankenKitty said...

S&F: As you will know, Plato said the same thing in Republic. Indeed, how strange it seems that we as a nation are willing to put power into the hands of those who are not only willing to take money for seeking that power but who also seem able to sacrifice others' lives to hold on to that power.

Anonymous said...

I think that the idea of "power" has set civilizations back and the development of knowledge. How do you think we could do away with it? Do we really need it?

P.S. I was thinking that you should continue looking into credit.