Hello @telos!
Imagine if you will that you are having a disagreement with a friend on where to eat lunch at. So you both decide that in order to settle the matter, you’ll have a coin flip. You choose heads, and your friend, he chooses tails. If tails wins, that means that you must shut up and enjoy those shitty bean burritos, even though you really wanted to eat pizza. If you are an honorable person, that’s exactly what you’ll do, you’ll shut up because you consented in advance to the result of the coin flip.
This is how they manufacture the consent of the governed; they first provide an illusion of choice, and get you to try and choose, but it’s mostly a rigged game in the first place. The system is set up in such a way that only extraordinarily wealthy candidates will make it to the final two. This is because people tend to drop out, and endorse the candidate in their party who has the best opportunity to win.
If you cast a vote for President, and your candidate loses, then that means you lose your right to complain about the actions of the victor. I agree with you that violence is a fact of life, and there will always be a Tyrant trying to lord over others. I just personally don’t like to be responsible for participating in the process that got him into power.
That’s my mini-rant on how voting can deplete your spiritual mana. Ever notice how every election cycle all candidates almost universally advocate that people get out and vote? Think of things in your life that you wouldn’t flip for. Now compare those things to the presidency. It’s probably less dangerous to flip for the things you wouldn’t flip for, than it is to flip for the Commander and Chief of the U.S. Military.
I do agree with you that violence is very much a part of life. I personally have no qualms about using violence in self-defense, nor should anyone else. The problem with the leaders that tend to be elected is that they will use the collective mana of the people, and pay the military to commit violence outside the purview of the non aggression principle.
It’s almost like that scene in the matrix that describes people as a battery for the machines. It’s a very spot on analogy. Anywho, it's something to consider. Enjoy your drink!
That's not true at all. I complain a LOT about Trump, and many Republicans complained a lot about Obama.
Way back when I first joined Steemit someone came up with a great quote during a discussion, and I should have written down his name so I can credit him but it was essentially:
"Democracy is the worst system that's better than all the systems that came before."
Hmm... I butchered it, it was definitely better worded... I'll have to go back and find it some day.
Basically though Democracy isn't necessarily great, but everything else we've tried was worse... sometimes a lot worse.
And it isn't as rigged as you think it is. In fact, Republicans actively try to prevent certain groups from voting and gerrymander the fuck out of their states to make sure the vote goes in their favor. If it were as rigged as you think it is there would be no need to do that.
Ever notice that all these conspiracy theories about both sides being the same come from right-leaning people and groups?
Well, I look at both sides being very similar when it comes to the business of war. I'll be shocked if the day ever comes when a Republican or Democrat decides to shut down the war machine, and closes the bases overseas.
I'm about as far right as you can get. All the way to the libertarian end of the spectrum.
If you participate in the vote, you consent to the result. If you consent to the result, you can complain technically, but it was of your own doing, the voters help to bring it all about via their participation in the process. You took a very important decision, and decided to flip for it.
It doesn't matter if you voted for Fiji water and ended up getting, either Pepsi or Coke in the end, as the act of voting is demonstrating that you preemptively consent to the result.
It would be entirely different if we were talking about voting on specific issues, but honestly what we're talking about here is voting on who gets the ring of Mordor.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.. Rinse and repeat. I don't think anyone should get that ring. In fact, I think we should throw it into a volcano.
If you said: punch me in the arm as hard as you can, and I did. Then the initial ouch factor would be reasonable, but if you continued to complain about it, it would only look foolish, because you knew better, or should have.
This ancient practice of statism, is collective stupidity. I don't know if humanity will ever learn. Our lifespans are too short to learn from it, and allot of that can be attributed to statism as well.