I refuse to give politics attention enough to comment on Facebook posts or include them in my status. However, I will not ignore them completely because ignoring a problem doesn't fix it.
I have a confession to make. No, I have a statement to make. A confession signifies wrongdoing. Anyways, what I have to say is that... I am not registered to vote.
Go ahead and get all worked up. Yell at me through your computer screen. Now calm down and open your mind and read on.
My decision not to vote is not due to a lazy lack of interest in politics, neither is it because I don't believe that my one little vote will really count for anything. It is because so far I have not been convinced that I want either of the candidates running (for any office) to win. It is because I have no faith in the system even if I thought one of the candidates was the absolute best man for the job. The perfect candidate would still be powerless to do what he thought best and would most likely become corrupt in the process. Furthermore, I do not believe that I can really know anything about what the candidates would actually do in office because during the campaign they just say things to win votes and make their competition look bad.
I don't know what changes would fix the system. I do not have any propositions. But just because I can't fix it doesn't mean it's not broken. I don't want to take part in continuing the brokenness. Even if I could figure out who was better and who was worse, I wouldn't want to support putting the "better" person into a corrupt office any more than I would want to support putting the "worse" person there.
I refuse to vote because I see it as a lose-lose situation and I'm not willing to play a game that can only result in a loss. If more people refused to keep playing maybe "they" would be forced to change the game. Maybe a whole group of people who refused to play could come up with suggestions to improve it.
Why is voting considered a civic responsibility? I can understand it being considered a privilege or even a right but a responsibility? please. no. That seems like something "they" came up with in order to make us feel like we're involved in the process. It's like a parent asking their kid whether they want to wear the blue outfit or the green one. The kid isn't really choosing; the parent is. Because the parent believes that the kid can't actually make the choice on their own and come up with something that matches and is weather appropriate. The way I see it, our parent, the government, is giving us the option of wearing a swimsuit or a spacesuit. Both of which could be okay in the right situation but when we're just going to school for the day either option is not really going to work out for us. We'll be too hot or too cold and make others feel uncomfortable. So instead of going along with everyone else and trying to guess whether this year will be warmer (pick swimsuit) or colder (pick spacesuit), I'm refusing to pick anything at all. Maybe I'll won't have anything to wear, or maybe they'll give me another option someday, or maybe they'll let me go to the moon.
Maybe this view is naive and juvenile. Maybe I'm being unappreciative of the privilege I have to vote. Maybe if I lived under a dictator I'd be of a different mind. But for now, this is where I am and this is what I think.
I have a confession to make. No, I have a statement to make. A confession signifies wrongdoing. Anyways, what I have to say is that... I am not registered to vote.
Go ahead and get all worked up. Yell at me through your computer screen. Now calm down and open your mind and read on.
My decision not to vote is not due to a lazy lack of interest in politics, neither is it because I don't believe that my one little vote will really count for anything. It is because so far I have not been convinced that I want either of the candidates running (for any office) to win. It is because I have no faith in the system even if I thought one of the candidates was the absolute best man for the job. The perfect candidate would still be powerless to do what he thought best and would most likely become corrupt in the process. Furthermore, I do not believe that I can really know anything about what the candidates would actually do in office because during the campaign they just say things to win votes and make their competition look bad.
I don't know what changes would fix the system. I do not have any propositions. But just because I can't fix it doesn't mean it's not broken. I don't want to take part in continuing the brokenness. Even if I could figure out who was better and who was worse, I wouldn't want to support putting the "better" person into a corrupt office any more than I would want to support putting the "worse" person there.
I refuse to vote because I see it as a lose-lose situation and I'm not willing to play a game that can only result in a loss. If more people refused to keep playing maybe "they" would be forced to change the game. Maybe a whole group of people who refused to play could come up with suggestions to improve it.
Why is voting considered a civic responsibility? I can understand it being considered a privilege or even a right but a responsibility? please. no. That seems like something "they" came up with in order to make us feel like we're involved in the process. It's like a parent asking their kid whether they want to wear the blue outfit or the green one. The kid isn't really choosing; the parent is. Because the parent believes that the kid can't actually make the choice on their own and come up with something that matches and is weather appropriate. The way I see it, our parent, the government, is giving us the option of wearing a swimsuit or a spacesuit. Both of which could be okay in the right situation but when we're just going to school for the day either option is not really going to work out for us. We'll be too hot or too cold and make others feel uncomfortable. So instead of going along with everyone else and trying to guess whether this year will be warmer (pick swimsuit) or colder (pick spacesuit), I'm refusing to pick anything at all. Maybe I'll won't have anything to wear, or maybe they'll give me another option someday, or maybe they'll let me go to the moon.
Maybe this view is naive and juvenile. Maybe I'm being unappreciative of the privilege I have to vote. Maybe if I lived under a dictator I'd be of a different mind. But for now, this is where I am and this is what I think.
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