The Only Winning Move Is Not To Play

September 13, 2019

By NZB3

Political involvement is your birthright as a free person.

You are not required to ‘vote’ or ‘participate’ in order to gain or keep it.

The following is the reaction of Miss Ri Theodore, a debater and student politician.

Let’s see what kind of ideas about civics are coming out of the schools of higher learning these days….

“At its simplest and most fundamental, if you refuse to vote you are not partaking in the voting system. If you are not partaking in the voting system then you have no influence and no claim to complain about the outcome of the election or the political process as it stands.”

“Regardless of if you agree, like, reject or disagree with any party or party policies if you do not vote you are literally not exercising your democratic right to dictate how the government controls your life.  This is exactly why Adam Currie is suggesting that you run yourself, make your family run or simply vote for someone you resonate most within because it is the closest balance between rejecting the political system and still excersing your democratic right.”

“I’m not saying this is the best or certainly even transparent form of government or democracy, but it is the fact of the matter. If you ignore this fact then you have absolutely no call to complain on a legitimate basis regarding the result of the election or the change/lack of change in politics on a general and objective basis. If you do not right to vote and thereby your voice, your voice will not be heard.”

“If you would like an analogy because by reading through your comments I can tell you’re quite fond of those: Politics is a game, democracy is the genre of game. In order to win the game, you have two options: Learn the rules of the game and play them better than anybody else, or learn the rules and bend them enough so the game is sufficiently changed and you win in that process. If you obtain from the game, guess what, you aren’t;t playing nor do you get to play. You can’t comment on the game like an annoying little sibling who is too young to understand the rules. You don’t ‘lose’ per se but you certainly don’t get what you want.”

– Ri Theodore; Facebook comment to Anarchist History of NZ

Well explained, Ri, thanks. If you refresh any one of the AHNZ posts long enough you’ll eventually generate the following random quote at the foot of the page…

“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.- WOPR, War Games (1983)”

I’ve included this because I’ve thought about what you’ve said in advance and reject this Statist game….

“If you are not partaking in the voting system then you have no influence and no claim to complain about the outcome of the election or the political process as it stands”

Everything you say depends upon this assumption. If you can’t prove it then you’re wrong.

Give me the QED on that one and I’ll quit Anarkiwi and go back to politics.

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Image ref. The Climate Challenge; Facebook

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