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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: j_b who wrote (3389)	9/17/1998 12:08:00 PM
From: Johannes Pilch	Respond to of 67261

>IMHO, if you allow other people to make your decisions for you, you have very little grounds for complaint. Rather than drop out and complain, you should become even more active, and attempt to influence the decisions. Complaining without taking an active role in the process is just complaining - it solves nothing, it changes nothing - why bother?< It seems to me Americans have grounds to complain simply because their government recognizes them as individuals (that they have certain inalienable rights), whether they vote or not, and because the law affects their lives. My children, for example, have just as logical a ground to complain as I, though they have never voted, this, because the law affects them and yet recognizes them as individuals with inalienable rights. Should, therefore, the country progress in such a way that the non-voter thinks it infringes upon his existence, he still has logical grounds to complain, though he does not participate in the electoral process. The reasons he might complain may vary, but whatever they are, it seems to me he has not merely the right, but the logical grounds to complain, even though he does not vote. (Having said this, I instinctively sense a problem with my thinking, but I am trying to determine if my instinct has resulted merely of my parent's having drummed it into my soul that not voting is amongst the most unAmerican things to do. It could be that not voting is amongst the most unAmerican things because the government is people, recognizing inalienable rights because of consensus, and that I should participate to try and protect this consensus. But if a right is inalienable, it exists regardless of consensus and regardless of whether it is infringed, and for this reason does the non-voter have grounds to complain. The problem here is we are now in the realm of metaphysics. Our rights and logical grounds to complain, ultimately depend upon this realm.) I think I see my problem, and I thank you. I am losing hope.

To: j_b who wrote (3389)	9/17/1998 3:03:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

>IMHO, if you allow other people to make your decisions for you, you >have very little grounds for complaint. Rather than drop out and >complain, you should become even more active, and attempt to >influence the decisions. Complaining without taking an active role in >the process is just complaining - it solves nothing, it changes >nothing - why bother? Voting is just responding to the choices presented to you. To have the potential to effect changes in the choices or to create new choices is a different matter. As long as one pays taxes, one has the right to complain.