6 Good Reasons For Not Voting
It remains a fact that, no matter what the result of the latest Irish elections, the biggest exhortation you'll hear is that everyone should go out and vote. Go on, everyone, get out and vote. If you don't vote you're not exercising your democratic privilege. If you don't vote you should be ashamed of yourself. People who don't vote are responsible for, oh, crime and stuff.
Obviously, most sensible people know, instinctively, that this is arse. However, we've been so conditioned to feel that voting is our civic "duty" that too many people admit to not voting in an apologetic manner, as though they've done something terribly wrong. Meanwhile, all those smug "look at me I went and used my mandate" are allowed to walk around like they've done the right thing, rather than propping up a corrupted system that gives us periodic choices between greasy middle-management lizard-men, differentiated only by the angle at which they bend over when confronted by a businessman*.
Fuck 'em. All right-thinking citizens should spend polling day doing something more meaningful and productive; examples include direct action, eating chocolate, and beating up Ryan Tubridy. Maths nerds are allowed to watch election coverage, on account of how they will orgasm at every sight of a swingometer, but everyone else should just do more productive things. Like watching this on YouTube:-
And here's why.
1. Don't excuse the failure of representatives
The question of who rules us is, ultimately, extremely important. There aren't many people who would argue with that. However, in election after election, we are presented with a straight choice between Corrupt and Incompetent, and Less Corrupt But Even More Incompetent. The Labour party have contributed nothing constructive for years, certainly since Ruairí Quinn buggered off; Greena Fáil have been disgraceful in government, parrotting enviro-orthodoxy and showing no interest in people; the Shinners are the Shinners, and shouldn't be voted for under any circumstances; and the rest are loonies or makeweights. We've been given no alternative to vote for, and yet people are still going out and expressing preferences they've had to dredge reluctantly from a miasma of boredom and indifference. And yet those who choose not to are somehow doing the wrong thing? Sheesh.
2. Not voting is expressing a preference
...the fact that it's a preference that no-one listens to is irrelevant. The usual line you get parrotted by the shinily obnoxious class of people who I shall hitherto refer to as Voters, is "well, you should just go and spoil your vote." For pity's sake... WHY??? Spoil your vote, and you're aligned with people too stupid to put an X in the right box; your protest isn't "noted", as Voters claim, it's set aside as a clerical error. When e-voting reared its head (remember that?), all the objections revolved around security and Oooh Mummy The Drama Of The Count. Barely a whisper was mustered about people's right to spoil their vote being removed. Because people who spoil their vote aren't seen as making a meaningful contribution, and nobody cares about them. If you don't vote, however, you align yourselves with the lazy, the apathetic, the disaffected, and the disenfranchised. Frankly, that's a crowd I identify with.
3. You can't vote against anyone
A friend of mine** recently had what I thought was a devastatingly good idea, which was that you should be able to cast a negative vote. I'd happily toddle to a polling station if I knew that I could stick a minus beside somebody's name. Unfortunately, we have a system where we can only vote for people. This gives us problems. Lots have people have gone out with the intention of giving Fianna Fáil a bloody nose, but this will mean they wind up telling the Blueshirts they're doing a good job. In Britland, of course, they came up with the idea of the Monster Raving Loony Party; one of the rare moments which simply make you love the English, like cheese-rolling*** and I'm Alan Partridge. If we had an equivalent here, it would probably wind up being a front for a pro-life anti-immigration organisation.
4. People aren't stupid, they're just treated like they are
Why don't so many people vote, anyway? Some of them are probably too lazy to walk to the polling station; more of them didn't get a polling card, and feel uncomfortable about pretending to be their dead granny. But many more find themselves confronted by career politicians with all-too familiar surnames, who have grown up within the political sphere and have no sense of its context. The rise of the political secretary culture has lead to most politicians rising through an esoteric ladder, rather than bringing the perspective of an outsider. The only exception to this, George Lee, is so surprising that he proves the rule. Even if he is a sodding economist. The world of politics is, like the world of celebrity, very open; it has to be, of necessity. However, the esoteric nature of politics, as it is now, has created what is effectively a ruling class who think they know better than us, and who expect us to vote for them out of right. And, when they fail to get the people to take an interest, they act like it's the people's fault. This, apparently, is what we should be going out and voting for.
5. Because votes are important
One of the other spurious castigations you get from Voters is the old line of how, elsewhere in the world, people can't vote; and yet here we have people with that privilege, and who don't bother using it. That, of course, is the whole point. Votes are precious. They matter. And yet, our leaders expect us to give them away to anyone who sticks an obnoxious poster of themselves on a lamp-post. Given a decent alternative, then obviously it's sensible to vote for that alternative. Where no reasonable alternative is being provided, though...? We have seen, over the past year, the astonishing levels of contempt that Ireland's politicians have for Ireland's people; it has been demonstrated over and over again. The politicians can't be surprised when half the electorate hits them right back with exactly the same levels of disdain, and responds to the question with a resounding "Who Cares?"
6. Most of the polling stations are in schools.
Man, I fucking hate schools.
* Joe Higgins is an exception, but he's not really a politician, he's simply a contrasting agent; like that little androgynous figure you see in the bottom left-hand corner of architects' drawings, who's only there to show how gloriously empty everything else is.
** Yes, of course I have friends. At least four.
*** This is why Health and Safety culture exists. And why it's sometimes justifiable.
Obviously, most sensible people know, instinctively, that this is arse. However, we've been so conditioned to feel that voting is our civic "duty" that too many people admit to not voting in an apologetic manner, as though they've done something terribly wrong. Meanwhile, all those smug "look at me I went and used my mandate" are allowed to walk around like they've done the right thing, rather than propping up a corrupted system that gives us periodic choices between greasy middle-management lizard-men, differentiated only by the angle at which they bend over when confronted by a businessman*.
Fuck 'em. All right-thinking citizens should spend polling day doing something more meaningful and productive; examples include direct action, eating chocolate, and beating up Ryan Tubridy. Maths nerds are allowed to watch election coverage, on account of how they will orgasm at every sight of a swingometer, but everyone else should just do more productive things. Like watching this on YouTube:-
And here's why.
1. Don't excuse the failure of representatives
The question of who rules us is, ultimately, extremely important. There aren't many people who would argue with that. However, in election after election, we are presented with a straight choice between Corrupt and Incompetent, and Less Corrupt But Even More Incompetent. The Labour party have contributed nothing constructive for years, certainly since Ruairí Quinn buggered off; Greena Fáil have been disgraceful in government, parrotting enviro-orthodoxy and showing no interest in people; the Shinners are the Shinners, and shouldn't be voted for under any circumstances; and the rest are loonies or makeweights. We've been given no alternative to vote for, and yet people are still going out and expressing preferences they've had to dredge reluctantly from a miasma of boredom and indifference. And yet those who choose not to are somehow doing the wrong thing? Sheesh.
2. Not voting is expressing a preference
...the fact that it's a preference that no-one listens to is irrelevant. The usual line you get parrotted by the shinily obnoxious class of people who I shall hitherto refer to as Voters, is "well, you should just go and spoil your vote." For pity's sake... WHY??? Spoil your vote, and you're aligned with people too stupid to put an X in the right box; your protest isn't "noted", as Voters claim, it's set aside as a clerical error. When e-voting reared its head (remember that?), all the objections revolved around security and Oooh Mummy The Drama Of The Count. Barely a whisper was mustered about people's right to spoil their vote being removed. Because people who spoil their vote aren't seen as making a meaningful contribution, and nobody cares about them. If you don't vote, however, you align yourselves with the lazy, the apathetic, the disaffected, and the disenfranchised. Frankly, that's a crowd I identify with.
3. You can't vote against anyone
A friend of mine** recently had what I thought was a devastatingly good idea, which was that you should be able to cast a negative vote. I'd happily toddle to a polling station if I knew that I could stick a minus beside somebody's name. Unfortunately, we have a system where we can only vote for people. This gives us problems. Lots have people have gone out with the intention of giving Fianna Fáil a bloody nose, but this will mean they wind up telling the Blueshirts they're doing a good job. In Britland, of course, they came up with the idea of the Monster Raving Loony Party; one of the rare moments which simply make you love the English, like cheese-rolling*** and I'm Alan Partridge. If we had an equivalent here, it would probably wind up being a front for a pro-life anti-immigration organisation.
4. People aren't stupid, they're just treated like they are
Why don't so many people vote, anyway? Some of them are probably too lazy to walk to the polling station; more of them didn't get a polling card, and feel uncomfortable about pretending to be their dead granny. But many more find themselves confronted by career politicians with all-too familiar surnames, who have grown up within the political sphere and have no sense of its context. The rise of the political secretary culture has lead to most politicians rising through an esoteric ladder, rather than bringing the perspective of an outsider. The only exception to this, George Lee, is so surprising that he proves the rule. Even if he is a sodding economist. The world of politics is, like the world of celebrity, very open; it has to be, of necessity. However, the esoteric nature of politics, as it is now, has created what is effectively a ruling class who think they know better than us, and who expect us to vote for them out of right. And, when they fail to get the people to take an interest, they act like it's the people's fault. This, apparently, is what we should be going out and voting for.
5. Because votes are important
One of the other spurious castigations you get from Voters is the old line of how, elsewhere in the world, people can't vote; and yet here we have people with that privilege, and who don't bother using it. That, of course, is the whole point. Votes are precious. They matter. And yet, our leaders expect us to give them away to anyone who sticks an obnoxious poster of themselves on a lamp-post. Given a decent alternative, then obviously it's sensible to vote for that alternative. Where no reasonable alternative is being provided, though...? We have seen, over the past year, the astonishing levels of contempt that Ireland's politicians have for Ireland's people; it has been demonstrated over and over again. The politicians can't be surprised when half the electorate hits them right back with exactly the same levels of disdain, and responds to the question with a resounding "Who Cares?"
6. Most of the polling stations are in schools.
Man, I fucking hate schools.
* Joe Higgins is an exception, but he's not really a politician, he's simply a contrasting agent; like that little androgynous figure you see in the bottom left-hand corner of architects' drawings, who's only there to show how gloriously empty everything else is.
** Yes, of course I have friends. At least four.
*** This is why Health and Safety culture exists. And why it's sometimes justifiable.
posted by Nyder O'Leary at
12:40
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