technoir: (Default)
([personal profile] technoir Oct. 13th, 2008 03:45 pm)
To those of you who advocate not voting or don't care. To those who state their vote does not matter.

The thing is the model you have described is based on the notion that the will of the individual is irrelevant to group decisions. When the civil rights movement happened was it the act of a group which changed the political scene or the collection of individuals making a choice? The will of groups cannot work with out the individual minds making choices. Would it be better if more people paid attention to how they make their choices? Hells yeah. We can't guarantee people on mass will. All we can be responsible for is our own act of will.

One way which we can encourage people think more about their vote is to convince they have to vote. Not all of them will think about it but maybe some more will. It is moot. The important part is people take responsibility for their collective will. If everyone in the country decided Kenneth Hite should be president then he would. It is all a matter of individual will translating to group action.

Now that said, should someone divorce themselves from the exercise of their individual will in collective decisions of the people, then they believe they have divorced themselves of the weight of those decisions reached. This is a false notion. By not participating in the collective decisions then they are as responsible for the decision reached as the people who supported it. You have in fact by default agreed to those decisions whatever they may be.

Translation. If you don't vote, then you deserve what you receive and make yourself irrelevant. I am not irrelevant. I choose to vote and to exercise my will. If the rest of America votes another way then well that sucks but at least I can say I did my part. If I did not vote then my bitching about the status of things is really pointless. I got what I chose by not voting.

my .02

From: [identity profile] justinjacobson.livejournal.com


Jeremiah, you're overreaching here. A person can still not like what happens, still have opinions about political matters, still care, and still have an objective understanding that a single vote doesn't make a difference.

It's not that it's too much trouble, it's that the act itself is lacking any utility.

The sentiment is great. That's why I volunteered to work on Obama's campaign. Meaningful action can make a difference. If everyone took your same attitude and applied it to actual feet-on-the-ground campaigning, that would make a vast difference.

From: [identity profile] technoir.livejournal.com


Attitude is important. If everyone in in america took responsibility for their power and voted the way they believe then maybe we might get change. The belief that our individual votes don't have power has prevented a lot of change. People saying it doesn't matter is what makes the statement true. We have a two party country because people believe the lie that those are the only choices. Attitude changing is important.

From: [identity profile] justinjacobson.livejournal.com


I'll admit, I'm flagging. Argument via LJ is just tedious. But I appreciate you engaging, Jeremiah. I always enjoy a good philosophical debate.

From: [identity profile] technoir.livejournal.com


Me too! I have been accused of being willing to argue with a chair. It is nice to get a chance to talk out philosophy. I usually come away from such discussions with a new way of looking at them.
.

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