The last post generated some cynical posts about voting not making a difference.
My personal problem with cynicism is that if I become cynical then I know I will become negative and depressed and stop trying. I make this claim about NOBODY ELSE. This just happens to be how I am wired.
The devil wins if I stop trying. If I do everything I am supposed to, then at least Old Nick will have to rouse himself from the couch and his other distractions and cheat.
If I do nothing, then he wins by default. I am GIVING Old Nick the reins to power rather than having to work even the slightest, little bit.
Losing may be a forgone conclusion but I can at least make the bastids break into a sweat. And, God willing, working and following directions will be so foreign to most of them then we can still prevail.
And making the shark swim across the mud-flats will leave a mud-streak that leads back to where he was loafing. That can be useful information.
Bonus image
Having voted in every election since I was 18, I can now say I am done, moving on.
ReplyDeleteI don't gamble in casinos, the house wins but not with me playing.
I don't do drugs, they are bad for me. Don't drink, same reason.
Avoid hitting my hand with a hammer.
Cynic? Absolutely.
I am turning my energy towards more productive things.
Voting Republican since Jerry Ford. Look at my screen name. Now, Republican means betrayal. Betrayal of their own voters whom they hate.
ReplyDeleteI am not doing it anymore. I am voting commie. Let's light this thing up.
Joe, I too will carry on voting in the future - even with the heavyhearted knowledge that the game is clearly rigged.
ReplyDeleteDeep down....
We all know....
There is no "voting" one's way back to freedom
I suppose the question should be: Which damages Big Brother more: to voot or not to voot?
ReplyDeleteAm I cynical? Yes I am. But more importantly, I’m a realist. I’m not going to go through life with my head stuck in the sand.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite cynical about many things, but that is no excuse to just give up. A successful person is the person who refused to quit, no matter how bad the odds were or how many times they failed.
ReplyDeleteYou may not win, but you sure as heck don't just surrender. You don't lose until you stop trying.
Just because voting is a useless exercise doesn't mean you have to give up. Just expend your efforts in different, more productive directions. That's not cynicism, that's being a realist.
ReplyDeleteThere's a difference between quitting/giving up, and finding a different way to achieve your objectives. Voting is not an objective, it's a tool. Find another tool.
Oh, and the way the election systems are run, you aren't making anyone sweat.
DeleteThey seem to want to push it until someone decides their
ReplyDeletePronouns need to be Was/ Were.
I’m so cynical I don’t even trust myself, but what we’re talking about here isn’t cynicism, it’s defeatism.
ReplyDeleteI’m so tired of the constant ‘separatist’ ideology of “we can’t live with them, so let them have their half of the country”. Well, it isn’t “their half” it’s a bit of my country they’ve stolen (they sure as shinola didn’t build ‘that’). You want to surrender, because fighting is hard, well screw you.
So voting is (and always has been) compromised and corrupted. Whining about it, and pretending that walking away, letting them take-over complete control without even a token resistance, isn’t reasonable or rationale (or however you want to justify your craven surrender to yourself) it’s cowardice.
So ‘we’ appear, even now, to be losing (despite everyone now ‘knowing’, not just suspecting the truth)? You still ‘fight until we die and drop’, because that way at least you can know you're still a free man, and can face your maker on your feet.
But go ahead, pretend you’re being cynical, in not voting, if it floats your boat, (it’s so much easier than getting off your flabby butt and doing something, anything, even if you lose, again and again) the rest of us can see the yellow even through the internet.
“The only thing for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing …”
Some people would insist that the death camps wouldn't have succeeded if the inmates had only voted differently.
DeleteInability to see that the rules have changed, that the old reality no longer exists, will be a detriment to survival.
Go ahead and vote. It's a minimal amount of time down the drain. But it won't change things any more than making bigger bets in a rigged card game.
Preparing for the new reality is a better investment.
I wish I didn't get what you are saying. I've sworn off voting a few times, but if I don't at least go do it, then they win for sure. I know what they use polls for. They Get the actual numbers, which they use to figure out the percentage of cheat they hafta program in, then they publish the numbers they hope will help them get the voters out and at the same time lay the groundwork for winning and the people aren't shokkt. Nobody ever explained how fractions of votes happened, how Trump had fewer votes three hours after they said they stopped counting. Nobody ever explained why they taped cardboard over the windows after they ran the Republican vote watchers out. It was The most Obvious theft t,phhht,, no evidence.. Ha!
DeleteMajor league voting cynic here, Joe. Michigan's not-fair-vote history has sunk to one of the worst of five states in the union. Go ahead and voat more harder this time if you want. "The most important election, EVER!" , we will be told again, is coming. But voting is not the only thing that can be done.
ReplyDeleteDo something "imaginative" to help team freedom.
Milton
Reloading, not voting.
ReplyDeleteOne's a waste of my time.
Isn't it nice to have the luxury of giving up? In addition to the patients in need, the nursing homes have plenty of people who shouldn't be there, but have given up.
ReplyDeleteNot giving up. By the way, one can do much more than just vote - one can get involved. To ensure others can still have the luxury of giving up.
Snort... but the aerodynamics SUCK! :-)
ReplyDelete