Token wrote:Y'aint gunna get change if you don't do something.
darcy wrote:if voting change anything they'd make it illegal.
This isn't really directed at anyone in particular, but with the election coming up I'm already getting people telling me I "have" to vote, so fuck it here's my take on all of this.
There are innumerable ways of effecting change. Voting may have been that way in the past, but now it's nothing more than a formalized ritual. Zach's original post was funny, but only because there was so much truth to it. Political parties are either A: useless B: corrupt or C: a fantastic combination of the two. I like pretty much every party, I like pretty much every platform, and there isn't a single politician I would point to as "representative" of my political beliefs or wants. And yet, I "have" to vote.
I don't remember voting to go into Afghanistan. I don't remember voting to host the G20 conference. I don't remember voting to increase our military presence in the Arctic. I don't remember voting to bring the Olympics to Vancouver. Oh, wait, that's because we weren't allowed to vote on that. It was just done, despite the protest of thousands upon thousands of people.
Every three or four years, the government rolls out it's dusty old warhorse of an election. The candidates get up and pretty much play planned out roles. People vote, and the exact same people that got elected last time get elected again. Sometimes a different guy gets to pretend he's leader. Meanwhile, the corporations and private interest groups that funded the election are in a backroom writing policy. Oh, sure, sometimes you get some Mr. Smith Goes to Washington motherfucker who vows to "clean up" whatever shithole city the government of that particular country is located in, but that doesn't last. Eventually, the system either eats them, or they become that which they hated. OR, and this is a recent trend, they're just a straight up shill for corporate interests using populist slogans to get the mooing cattle that are the general populace to vote for them, and then they strip everyone of all their rights (HI SCOTT WALKER!).
Voting has become a formalized, archaic, useless convention that's only still around so that everyday schmucks can feel like they're actually doing something. They check a name on a piece of paper, stick it in a box, and go back to watching TV, secure in their knowledge that they've "changed" something. Meanwhile, the people who are actually in charge continue to fuck with everyones day, and when people complain they can just say "Hey, you voted for us".
Back in the colonial days in America there were a lot of slaves. What most people don't remember is, is that in those early days there were white slaves, too. It was called indentured servitude, and it was basically a contract that stated that rich person A would pay for your way to the New World, but then you were his bitch for ten to fifteen years. OH, and you had very few rights. OH, and if you broke any of the rules stated in the contract they could add five years to your service.
And then suddenly, indentured servitude was made illegal. You know why? There was an slave revolt in New York that came very close to successfully taking over the city. The reason it was so successful was because the white indentured servants, realizing that they were pretty much in the same boat as black slaves, joined in on the fun. And since the indentured servants were white, they could buy guns. Which they did, and supplied to the black slaves.
This terrified the landholding elite, so they hit on an admittedly brilliant plan: they abolished indentured servitude, gave rights to the former servants, and began the process of imposing universal male suffrage. "My God!" they said "We can't believe we treated you so badly for so long. Here are some basic rights. There, now, see how much better you are?"
They played one oppressed group off the other, in order to better control them. Sound familiar?
Fuck voting, and fuck government.
