Voted.
I voted today, in the gym of a local elementary school. Overall it went very smoothly. There was a sense of standing in line for a long time, but it fact we were home just about an hour after we left the house.
Why is it important to vote? Isn’t it just an empty ritual, rigged from the start, with candidates that are all just corporate puppets? If I were true to my youthful anarchist and later Marxist influences, I’d probably be memorizing Noam Chomsky and agreeing with that statement. But I was also raised by politically-active, liberal Jews, who believe that society is made of people, and that improvement of the world by people is not only possible but imperative.
I’m in no position to moralize; my civic involvement is generally limited to voting on election day, and recycling. I even missed my party’s primary. I’m not proud of that. I’ve made an effort to be informed, by studying the candidates on Project Vote Smart (where you can find detailed information about the candidates’ positions on a whole list of issues) and my state’s League of Women Voters site. Yes, I took the time to research whom I was going to vote for, albeit the night before the election.
If you enjoy any modicum of benefit from living in American society, why not participate in the process? It’s not about whether the person you voted for wins, it’s about paying attention — even just a little — and showing up. You don’t have to subscribe to some naive myth that you’re single-handedly changing the world. Just show up. Cynicism in defense of your own non-participation does not make you appear more intelligent. It just seems like an excuse for laziness.
What people forget is that most elections are not just about the hot-button, big-name races. The local campaigns might be less interesting, but the closer you get to home, the more connection there is between your life and the operation of government. It’s one thing to be cynical about someone running for Congress — but what about State senators, county executives, city council members, sheriff, judges? I don’t know these people any better, except what I’ve learned through reading. But I feel like these people are going to have a more immediate impact on my life. You could also argue that your vote counts more in a local election, since the overall number of votes is smaller.
What’s my point? I guess that I’m still an optimist (albeit an apocalyptic optimist). Chaos theory reminds us that even the smallest change can alter the course of a storm. And even if History is spiraling down a giant vortex into confusion, I’d rather be paddling with or against the current than just getting dragged along. Any takers?
March 5th, 2007 at 10:44 am
The smallest change might alter the course of a storm, but you can no more canute the world into a better place by voting than you can blow away a hurricane. It’s not cynical to refuse to participate in a pre-defined anti-reality system. “These people” will only have an immediate impact on your life to the degree they are allowed to by a system you or they cannot change.
March 5th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Are you saying, then, that people can make change, but only if it’s done completely outside the context of culture (or at least politics)? Or is the whole point of attempting to affect the world in a deliberate fashion a doomed enterprise?
Choosing not to participate in something may well be an act of positive conviction. What seems cynical to me is the assumption that any complex system is “pre-defined” and unchangeable. The converse need not be that the world operates in a cheerful, egalitarian way, exactly as advertised. I am just wary of sweeping absolute statements.
The point I have always made is that, to the extent that you are not yourself subject to control and manipulation, then any worldview which presumes an omnipotent system of control is incomplete.
March 8th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
As far as I have seen no change can be made of the established systems we have now from within, except for superficial ones. It’s not a “doomed enterprise” attempting to affect the world, far from it (although, if its coming from anywhere authentic the world won’t change, of course, rather individuals), but it cannot be done from within, using the tools that the world gives us - which are corrupted (built in outcome predetermined). If you have any examples of really beautiful change overcoming, say, an enormous multinational or a nation state, then please let me know; i.e. “any” complex system might be changable but surely this one has to be (and surely will be) torn down and rebuilt - its just too rotton, isn’t it?
I too am wary of sweepting statements, and I am quite happy to joyously fling my naked body against the immense cube, should the need arise. And that seems to me to be required from apperception of this lovely life. But I have no hope that I’ll make a dent. Theoretically it might be possible, but that doesn’t seem to me to be the point - which is, as you say, more in the spirit of the fling.
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Thank you for voting. Next year: The Primaries (too!). J