theodorelloyd: an election is in my immediate future (being in canada and all), I'm wondering what your thoughts are on not casting a vote V.S. spoiling a ballot.
Buying into the voting system in any way shape or form is useless. If you’re trying to send a message through your vote, the “authorities” won’t notice because they don’t care. They don’t care if you don’t vote and they don’t care if you do. Since this is the case, you may as well just abstain from the process entirely in order to remove yourself from being part of the system that propagates violence and oppression against others.
- Nobody will keep election promises
- Nobody will properly represent you
- Nobody will listen to your concerns
- Nobody will help the poor
- Nobody will promote equality
- Nobody cares
"What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other peoples’ decisions for them? Liberty, the very opposite of ownership and control, cannot, then, result from political action, either at the polls or the barricades, but rather evolves out of attitude."
“
— Tom Robbins.
Governments, like all other hierarchical institutions, depend upon the cooperation and, at least, the tacit consent of those over whom they exercise power. In other words, government soldiers and police can force people to do things they don’t want to do, but in the long run — in the face of adamant opposition — such coercion is either too expensive or too futile to accomplish its goals of subjugating entire populations. It is far simpler to motivate people to do what you want them to do, rather than forcing them to do it by pointing guns at them all the time. As Boris Yeltsin supposedly said, “You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can’t sit on it long.”
Educating generations of parents and children in government schools and teaching them to be patriotic and support their government in political elections is one of the fundamental ways governments garner public support. Citizens are taught that it is both their right and duty to vote. But all this is done with an ulterior motive in mind. As Theodore Lowi, in his book Incomplete Conquest: Governing America pointed out:
Participation is an instrument of [government] conquest because it encourages people to give their consent to being governed … . Deeply embedded in people’s sense of fair play is the principle that those who play the game must accept the outcome. Those who participate in politics are similarly committed, even if they are consistently on the losing side. Why do politicians plead with everyone to get out and vote? Because voting is the simplest and easiest form of participation [of supporting the state] by masses of people. Even though it is minimal participation, it is sufficient to commit all voters to being governed, regardless of who wins.
There are ways of opposing the state, other than by voting “against” the incumbents. (And remember, even if the opposition politicians are the lesser of two evils, they are still evil.) Such non-political methods as civil disobedience, non-violent resistance, home schooling, bettering one’s self, and improving one’s own understanding of voluntaryism all go far in robbing the government of its much sought after legitimacy.
As Thoreau pointed out, “All voting is a sort of gaming, like chequers or backgammon … . Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it.” So whatever you do, don’t play the government’s game. Don’t vote. Do something for the right.
(Source: anarchyagogo)
