>...you are wrong because you are missing the big picture. No matter how fiercely individualistic one may be we are all in some ways part of the human community and must accept our responsibility as such for it's future. As less of us vote the power becomes more concentrated in the hands of the few. Believe me these few understand how to manipulate power to their ends which will be to solidify and increase this power. American democracy has been around only a short time. In spite of our current safe and secure life style, history tells us there is no guarantee it will endure .We must all work to be sure that it does.<
Compelling. After reading this post of yours, I almost made my own voting booth merely to release a sudden frenzied impulse to push a "VOTE" button. The thing is so simple I am surprised all this time I have missed it. I see I have been constantly distracted from the real issue by the incessant, and erroneous, contention that by not voting I lose logical grounds to complain. I have never understood this logic, and rejected it, though I have always felt in my bones that not voting was foolish.
Any non-voter has the right and logical grounds to complain, just as does any voter. But the voter, in some small way, upholds democracy, the system upon which America rests-- the blood, so to speak, of the country. It is here that I see that not to vote is to act in a manner that is anti-democratic and thus anti-American. Here then, is where we see that the voter is superior to the non-voter.
Now just as I have said this, my heart became somber because I asked myself, "Do I still believe in democracy-- the blood of America? Do I yet have the will and/or desire to do all that is required to uphold it? Is it yet worth believing in America? Am I willing to lay all on the line to protect her?"
I am losing hope in the system because it seems constantly to force me to ridicule my own identity. It is no great issue to be ridiculed by others, and I literally am impervious to such. Indeed, every ridicule directed toward me, reveals a weakness in my opponent that I can and will use against him. But to be forced to ridicule myself smacks of oppression. Do you know there exists a work of "art" that depicts Jesus Christ suspended in a vat of urine, a work entitled "Piss Christ"? Now while I would perhaps be first to declare that an American has the right to construct such a work (though I could perhaps argue it amounts to "fighting words"), do you know this work was ultimately funded by me through the American system? Do you know there exists very much of this sort of thing, all of which is ultimately funded by me? The system may as well have literally taken me, or my mother or father and dunked us all in vats of urine-- offending us in the very strongest possible ways because that is effectively what it has done to me very many times. Indeed, it has been much worse than this, yet I have attempted to take it in stride, having attempted to convince myself we are still all Americans, with differing philosophies, but brothers nevertheless. Reason, however, will not allow me to continue such self-deception, and therefore I have nearly lost faith in the system and respect for my so called "fellow Americans".
Rather than retaliate, by wishing for and supporting armed conflict, it seems more compatible with my belief system to allow the system to have precisely what it ostensibly wants, my complete alienation. This option, while yet allowing the same monetary flow toward things I find abominable, obliterates my embracing the system as my own. Any "support" that would flow from me toward it would flow as simple rent, given to it by me merely for the privilege to exist on American real-estate. It then becomes not my concern at all what the landlord should decide to do with his rents, and I then will have left the system, directing my efforts solely to being productive for myself and family, not caring at all for the well-being of the country and its society. Should it continue to exist, I would merely continue to produce for myself. Should it fail, I would merely continue to do what I have always done, this, to the maximum extent allowable.
It is not from any bitterness I say this. I am not bitter at all. It is a matter of reason and pragmatism. Why embrace the American system, when it forces me to excrete upon Christ, which is to me worse than excreting upon my mother or father or myself? Why embrace the system when it forces me to support all manner of things I believe are comprehensively deplorable, things that are directly contradictory to my character and nature? Why, of all lame-brained deeds should I teach my children respect for the Presidency when America elects and upholds just any old whore for the office? It seems more reasonable to withdraw my heart from such a system, using the system merely for what resources I might obtain through it, this, exclusively for my own survival, even should my doing so increase the risk of its imploding from the weight of its own depravity and lack of conscience.
But then I look across this world and see no other place nearly so great as America; and my stupid heart becomes inflamed all over again, making me feel a hopeless fool. I am so dreadfully and hopelessly infected by, in love with this damned country! How sometimes I wish it were not so, but this wishing is just about as hopeless as my wishing I could live without eating and breathing. So, of course, as has always been the case, I will toss reason to the wind, recommit myself to joining my voice to the Great Chorus to which you have so eloquently referred, fighting against hope for the respect of the system and thanking God I am not French.<g> |
