File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2004/anarchy-list.0411, message 30


Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2004 11:33:05 +0000
Subject: Re: electoral vote



Well, it looks like I got it completely wrong. I put this down
to two things. (1) My eternally sunny and optimistic nature.
(2) The sheer oddness of the USA compared with the vast
majority of humankind.

It is a fact that when you get a greatly increased number
of folk voting this is usually bad news for the folks currently
in office. That was true in Spain, and it is true in most
of the rest of the world. When you see long queues
of folk patiently waiting to vote, this is usually because
they want a change. Yes, I know from an anarchist
point of view there is no change, but the point is that,
usually, when you get large numbers determined
to vote, it is because they  _believe_  that they are
voting for change. It is not usually the case that you
get huge numbers of folk turning out because they are
keen to request that the existing government gives them
more of the same. I can only conclude that the USA
is in the grip of a huge epidemic of infectious stupidity,
and be glad that I managed to rescue at least
one refugee (actually, two) from that terrible fate.

Erik wrote

 > in belgium vote is compulsary, so i went everytime.

Living in a country where I am free to vote or not
to vote, I sometimes do and sometimes don't.
But if I lived in one of them totalitarian regimes
like Belchum or Oztralia where voting is compulsory,
then I would see it as a matter of principle
and a matter of honour to refuse to vote.

 > erik (once a catholic, always a catholic)

Dave (once a protestant, always a protestant)



   

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