10 Simple Reasons to Stop Voting

by William Schnack

The United States was founded under a document called the Articles of Confederation, which, while being democratic for those who were allowed to vote, did not allow anyone but land-owning, white, protestant, males to vote. Considering that most whites at this time were not land-owners, this was a small percentage of the population. Under these Articles, Shays’ Rebellion, and other farmer-led rebellions occurred. Many of these were due to evictions, high interest rates, taxes, and regulation of colonial scrip. Because there was still very much a class society in the United States, and because of the rebellions it was spawning, the Federalists, such as Hamilton and Madison, wanted to create a stronger government. The Anti-Federalists, led by Patrick Henry, wanted otherwise. The Federalists held an illegal assembly, which illegally ratified the United States Constitution. This allowed more taxes to be levied, and for internal rebellions to be smashed in favor of wealthy land-owners. It also gave us our form of government that we have today, which allows all citizens who are not felons to vote for a representative. While still preferable to monarchy, perhaps, representative government was created for the purpose of stamping out the interests of the working poor. It does this mentally, by suggesting that the poor are self-determined and free; and it does this physically, by militarizing the federal government. Our government is quite imperialistic, after all, thanks to the power to levy taxes created by the constitution. Basically, if you’re a patriot, you should study your history. You won’t be a patriot much longer.
We are given two options, neither of which represent our own class interests or individual autonomy. All elected officials come from ruling class backgrounds and are supported by ruling class interests.
Even if someone from our class and with our basic interests gets elected, there are still things they will do that we won’t like. Nobody can represent us 100% except for ourselves. “Packaged deals” are quite common. Often a candidate will promote a certain behavior, and may even hold true to it, while they are not telling us about a hidden agenda.
Even if you lose, you already agreed to the winner. When one explicitly and voluntarily partakes in a game, which by its nature has rules, one agrees to abide by those rules. Upon losing the game, one has already agreed that it is right that they lose, because they have agreed to play by the rules of the game. You should not agree to play this game, which has okayed everything we find intolerable about capitalism.
Representative democracy assumes that people need others smarter than them to make decisions on their behalf, but ignores the paradox of letting them choose these individuals for others. As I’m not a dentist, I have no knowledge of dentistry. While I should be free to choose my dentist, to allow me to vote on officials in the American Dental Association would be ludicrous! Likewise, to allow people who know nothing of jurisprudence to decide its best provider for others!
Majority-rule, unless consented to, is rationally unethical. While it may have been okay in the past somehow, it should not be okay to force your opinion onto others. It doesn’t matter how many people you have behind you, or how much firepower you have. It is rationally wrong.
The Electoral College, campaign financiers, special interest groups, voter fraud, and many other concerns keep even the majority from having their voices heard during elections.
Voter-participation is important for the image of government validation. If the numbers of voters go down (assuming we actually get the real numbers in the first place), the validity of government is made publicly questionable. Government should not only be questioned, but eliminated.
Government depends on the consent of the governed. We should not give such consent. This begins with the removal of explicit consent, and then onto tacit consent.
If your goal is to create a society wherein people’s opinions matter, and their feelings are considered real, voting cannot get you there. A society wherein people’s opinions and feelings matter (anarchy) is a society wherein people can express themselves in many different ways, and are not forced to conform to the outcome of others’ votes. Such a society depends on the concerted activity of its proponents, all having different values, for the sake of protecting the right to differing values. To get to such a society, voting must be dispelled with. We can’t suggest that we are trying to create a pluralistic society, which takes concerted effort from many walks of life to establish, and then tell these people which candidate to vote for. This is no manner by which to sustain a movement toward the respect of differing values. It’s a way to alienate people from one another, and to divide them. This is how the ruling class wins: Divide and conquer. It has done this with the races, with the genders, with sexual preferences, etc. If not for being pitted one against the other, our identities would be valued by one another, and we’d see the true enemy (authority) for who they are.

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