Well then let me explain it to you: If everyone decides not to vote, and I am the only one who does vote, I in effect am the sole appointer of those who run the government. If you do not believe that is a powerful position to be in, I’m not sure how to help you understand anything.
That compared to the choices on the ballot, you would prefer no one.
No. Most people would interpret it as the majority of people don’t care enough to be bothered…or at least not enough to make the time to get to a designated polling place on a Tuesday when they may have other commitments.
Didn’t you just say that not voting is a message of not consenting to government?
By this logic, JJ, I could invent an imaginary society right now that you are all a part of, only I have “voting rights”, and you’d have to obey everything my designated agent told you to do. You’d have to use my family bank, and accept the funny money it prints, just for a start.
Why can’t I do that? Is it perhaps because I have not conditioned and brainwashed a large number of you to believe that this is what should be the case? I do not have legitimacy?
So why will one person be able to retain such power if they lose their legitimacy?
So you’re actually asking for an “abolish the state!” option, because no court in creation would interpret any “blank vote” option that’s ever been put on any ballot in history to have meant that the entire government system must pack its bags and go home if it wins a plurarity. For one thing, they are all a part of that system.
It would be the same as a Westminster system where there’s no outright majority, and no stable coalition government is possible. i.e. Belgium. Somehow the state manages to go on. Somehow it never occurs to anyone to abolish the state simply because democracy isn’t working too well right now - somehow that’s always the people’s fault, and they must get their act together and sort it out and give government a stronger mandate. If pressure must be brought to bear upon them to achieve such a situation, so be it. The country has to be made safe for democracy.
Most people cannot realise something about the majority, unless they are realising it about themselves…
The fanatical cultish minority will think that the majority are morally deficient etc etc, but then fanatic cultish minorities always do.
I think you get the day off to vote in most countries. It’s only America where you can use it as excuse to get out of work. Here’s it’s either stand in line for hours in the sun/rain/cold/hail for nothing, or lie in bed and enjoy a nice day off, seeing as the govt has declared productivity on that day to be taboo. The opportunity cost is far greater than in America.
But can’t you vote on the weekend before in a lot of places?
Well, you might have to explain yourself is all.
Surely any situation where inaction is genuinely the most appropriate form of action can appear, prejudicially, to be borne of idleness or indecisiveness. Austrian economists are accused of it all the time by the we’re-all-dead-in-the-long-run crowd. Prudence can appear to be procrastination, and vice versa, but it’s an erroneous assumption that can be debunked quite easily…
You should always vote. Vote for the lesser evil, or if they are all really bad spoil your vote, but yo should always vote.
Your choice between Obama and Romney: More socialism or more crony capitalism? See? The problem is that you have to calculate their impact, which you cannot do at all.
Don’t say anything. Stay home, go for a stroll, go see a film… avoid confrontation at all costs. If somebody enquires why you didn’t vote just say none of the candidates was of your liking (which is true) and your choice should be respected. And stop there. Avoid antagonizing anybody, avoid endless tyrades about the evils of democracy, as tempting and gratifying as they are. If your family already has doubts about democracy and/or the present political class they’ll understand, otherwise it’s just useless engaging in confrontation. Go on with your life and save your energy for something more useful.
In that situation democracy will be dead and you will be called lunatic and insane if you think anybody should submit to your government. After all you just decided that by yourself.
I know it may sound very idealistic… but shouldn’t we libertarians always defend freedom?
I agree that most people will just not listen to any argument you gave, but it is worth to give it a shoot with most people. Probably, you aren’t going to convert anybody but at least you’ll make them think.
Basically I agree. In my opinion it is important to say what you think will happen in your country as time goes on and why it will happen, it is important to comment on what is happening in your country right now from ancap perspective. Just don’t be a crusader and/or dick about it.They will probably laugh or ignore you right now when there still is relative prosperity around. This should change when SHTF again (like it did in 2008).
If pressure must be brought to bear upon them to achieve such a situation, so be it. The country has to be made safe for democracy.