So I am trying to start a grass roots movement to end the practice of voting. Taking a cue from the “End The FED” movement, I am calling this the “End the Vote” project. I have spoken to a member of my local chapter of Campaign For Liberty about this, and he mostly laughed, but was shocked by my radicalism. I am hopeful that I can at least find some sympathy from this organization, and possibly a few who might take up some non-action with me. And now to the crux of this post:
What are the mighty Mises.org forumites opinions on this TEE shirt design? The Tee shirt is mightier than the taser in my opinion, and is currently my only method of spreading my message before I start going door to door. What think you, of this crucial instrument in spreading the message of liberty?
My philosophy would be classified as Voluntaryist or Anarcho-Capitalist. I personally believe that peacefully withdrawing consent from the State is the only way to lasting peace. Withdrawing my participation from State activities is step one. Convincing others to do the same is step two.
So, reduction to the absurd, of Pon Rual were running for president, and he were promising to disband the state into ancapland, you wouldn’t vote for him?
if it were possible that he could win the election under those kinds of promises (meaning at least 47% were ancaps), we would already be at a point where the state would have collapsed.
My short experience with C4L was extremely disappointing.
Your design could be better. It is a rather standard font, black & white, and lots of empty space.
I’m thinking you could have the slogan then some checkboxes with the words next to them crossed out (for example ‘tyranny’). Then maybe a word you want to represent checked. If you decide on the words you want and tell me the site you are using/link the photoshop template I will do it for you.
I dont think the state cares if you vote, though. They’ll still take your money and imprison you if you don’t cooperate. May as well pick the lesser evil and fight for their cooperation in your own beliefs.
I personally think that, when people see ‘end the vote’, they won’t think of anarchy as much as they’ll think it has to do with one-world government where no one’s vote counts.
Using marginal product logic you can prove that the decision to vote has no effect on the outcome of an election. The only condition in which your vote counts is a tie or difference of one in the vote tally, which is astronomically unlikely. ← Just put that sentence on a shirt and walk up and down the street whistling away with a big smile.
There are actually a number of countries around the world that have “none of the above” as an option (I forget which ones I read an article on it a while ago). Reminds me of the movie Brewster’s Millions. I like the shirt idea but agree with the others that you need to clarify the message in someway like “End the Vote - Having others commit violence is no better than you doing it” or something along those lines.
“So you would rather see the State continue than vote in an act of self defense?”
Answer:
“Those of us who love liberty should rethink any temptations we might have to rush to the deathbed of statism and attempt to revivify its corpse by giving it a transfusion of our energies. The society upon which statism has fed will doubtless undergo a few headaches, fevers, and upset stomachs in the interim. But like a case of the flu, it may be better to let the sickness run its course rather than continue our habit of suppressing the symptoms.” -Butler Shaffer (Why I Do Not Vote; LRC, Nov 14, 2000)
I used to believe that voting could be used as an act of self defense, but realize now that any time we vote, we declare by our actions that we believe it is right to rule others by the use of force. This is contrary to liberty. I think it would be impossible to end the reign of tyranny by anything other than non-majoritarian, voluntary action. Tyranny cannot be used to end tyranny, just as dishonesty cannot be used to bring about honesty. I look at voting as trying to use the One Ring to destroy Sauron.
And thank you, everyone, for the suggestions. I am working on a more advanced design, and taking all of your opinions into consideration.
I used to believe that voting could be used as an act of self defense, but realize now that any time we vote, we declare by our actions that we believe it >>is right to rule others by the use of force
i disagree i think that casting a vote is merely casting a vote, if we want to wrap it up in an intrepretation then we need to consider the agent that castthe vote. the phenomenon of ‘vote casting’ does not have meaning built in, it is not appropriate to adopt the intentional stance viz a ballot box, rather one adopts it with the person who is acting, and the action is informed by their intentions just as my behaviour of moving my arm that way, is either waving to a friend or pointing in the general direction of patagonia
the most i will say is that one must be aware that others can be wrong about your intentions when they observe you casting a vote and they may consider it your consent for the process and as an act of attempting to rule another by force,
someone mentioned write in candidates - is that still possible with electronic voting? If so - do you think thousands of similar write ins with a libertarian message is worth the energy just to F with them? maybe even becoming news worthy if there is enough of the same ..
The final goal would be an end to the State, but the intention of this project would be to bring to light the rather ludicrous nature of voting, and the barbaric philosophy behind it. Really, the shirt just needs to act as a conversation starter.