“Its not perfect but its the best existing model we have.”

October 2, 2019

By NZB3

“Encouraging non-voting is encouraging cynicism aka helplessness.”

It’s pretty bad form in my opinion for a moderator to have their say in a thread before locking it. I assume that this is not what happened in this case and that this topic is a fit one to debate and discuss with mutual respect. What I find is that it is voting, not non-voting, that makes people feel the most helpless and cynical of all. As we churn more of our time and our hopes into promising candidates and parties that wind up in ignominious scandals or simply fail to keep their word it breaks our hearts. By equating voting with civic responsibility we end up thinking both are a waste of time when actually it’s only the former!

“The election of…Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chavez…are testament that democracy works.”

I can’t even.

“Its not perfect but its the best existing model we have.”

Well that’s naught but the back of a Winston Churchill Weetbix box….’There is no alternative because I say there isn’t!’

“Ideally people vote for people rather than parties”

So much for ‘best existing model we have’, it’s already become ‘ideal voters would‘ by the following sentence! I’d go a different way. Rather than continuing the fantasy of ideal voters and ideal fantasy political parties who can save us if you just give them your proxy on a bit of paper every few years how about not? Retain your civic pride, don’t vote at all- use the energy you were going to give away to your imaginary allies in Wellington to make your own life and community stronger in a tangible way.

You wont believe how good it feels not to vote; Try it and see.

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