Yeah, I know. And you can hate me too. I actually voted for the guy. You want a defense? I'd actually try if you're interested, but I don't need to waste time if you'll chalk it up to me being a betrayer of liberty. Fact is that's exactly what I was yesterday. I soothed the state. But there--I've admitted it and now I'd like to move on to my main point, politician-style.
Reach out to the sad. Find out why.
Talk to the ecstatic. Find out why.
This is very simple. But you see, election or no election, our first responsibility is to politically explore our fellows. Actually talk--not on the Internet, or not only--but actually talk to the disgruntled co-worker who rolls her eyes at all the "I Voted" stickers. She has her reasons, unless she actually is an idiot like the voterprop tells us to expect. Apathy can be easy, but principled avoidance is another thing. There's fucking wisdom there, even if you won't or can't share it.
In short, Obama won because a whole bunch of people said so. We can debate the particulars, we can say this is good or this is bad. But the fact is that from Bush to Obama to whoever the citizenry (or a portion of them) selects or ratifies of whatever, the most I want to see from us critics is a shrug, because the people are still the only hope for those who would limit or push back or reinvent or extinguish or kill the state.
I am interested in your reasoning. I voted in every federal election from 2000 (or possibly 1998, I can't remember) until 2010. This was my first time not voting (for all the standard anarchist/libertarian/paleocon/leftist reasons), and I suspect 2010 will be my final ballot cast, which is okay by me. I will note that I felt a small bit of relief when the returns came in, for the single reason that I won't have to endure a new round of the nonsensical partisan mythology that Obama (er Gore) wouldn't have invaded Iran (er Iraq), and only Romney (er Bush) would do something so heinous. Always looking on the bright side, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to get blood on my hands. I don't care if anyone else votes or not, though I obviously want them to be able to. As for me, I didn't like the idea that I could abdicate my duty--a duty I impose on none others--to discern between bastards, and to choose someone, anyone, rather than sit back and watch.
ReplyDeleteNow does voting preclude sitting back and watching? No. Most voters do all three. But nevertheless, I found it hard to ignore that the vote was a spectacle of progressive empire, inclusion to the ranks of the bastards, but I feel or am deluded enough to say that I thought Obama was more likely to oversee a multiculturalization and feminization of the state. Some of the foreign press says explicitly that Obama is more able to assemble a coalition to bomb the shit out of Iran, and that makes sense, and that would be worse than domestic homophobia, but I have to say I fell for the sop of the first ticket to endorse gay marriage. That's not Obama, but public advocacy and shifting opinion, and I'm not really a fan of marriage (not due to my divorce, to be clear) in general, but I'm tired of the debate over it. I indulged my liberal thoughts and dismissed my anti-war stance because it was a non-factor in terms of voting for rival warlords. What remained in play was whether I wanted gays to be able to embrace bourgeois cultural modes and a few perks too. I wanted a black lesbian to be free to murder by public order and also smoke a doobie. I know that I helped re-elect a mass murderer, but I felt that I had to brave the stench of the abattoir. I had to take the world as it was. I don't know why, but that's my thought process. I tried to do it as consciously as I could. I didn't want the vote to be a soporific. And so I argued on Facebook to make me feel better, posted Wikileaks' comment on Obama's persecution of whistleblowers, and tried my best to accept myself.
Maybe I was scared that, by not voting, I'd feel less culpable for my state which continues to maraud about and bully others. I don't know. Call it action for action's sake. I did it for psychological reasons. Maybe I like half-breeds who oscillate between playing the game and retreating into intellectual aloofness. After all, I kinda can relate.
(It wasn't a "whole bunch" of people who made the arrangements, but a very small one. Relative, of course. How many is a whole bunch?)
ReplyDeleteI was being about careful with my sociology as someone who uses "whole bunch" can be.
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