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Your vote will make no difference. Statistically, you have a better chance of winning the Powerball lottery than making a difference with your vote. Voting is
by Prrometheus 18y ago
Your vote will make no difference. Statistically, you have a better chance of winning the Powerball lottery than making a difference with your vote.
Voting is not "speaking for yourself". You are allowed to speak one of two things, neither of which may be what you want to say.
You do have the power to change things and make the world a better place, but not through the political process.
If you stay home from the polls and use that time to read to a child or help an old lady carry groceries, you will have done more good for the world than if you spent the morning voting.
Most of the good things in this world, our vast cultural heritage and our technological richness, have not been generated through the voting booth. If you want to contribute to the material and spiritual wealth of our species, you will find your efforts best spent elsewhere.
If you buy into the hype and feel compelled to vote for the entertainment aspect of it, don't pretend that you are better than those who did not. You aren't.
When the officials you vote for harm other people through their actions in office, those people have the right to complain, even if they did not vote. Morality is not overridden by democracy.
- rms 18y agoI presume you will be staying home and reading to a child instead of voting today? You're a much better person than everyone else on the internet. If only the whole world was like you, we'd have completely eliminated everything wrong with society by now.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- Prrometheus 18y agoI will be voting, but I acknowledge that it is purely for entertainment value and that I am not changing the world and that I am not morally better than those that do not vote. In fact, many of them are probably morally better than I.
- tjr 18y agoOf course, if everyone except for you didn't vote, then your one vote would mean a lot more. If everyone except for you and me didn't vote, then our votes would still have significant value. If everyone except for you and me and ten others didn't vote, then... ...well, somewhere along the line, do our votes really stop mattering? A vote for X amid thousands of votes for Y doesn't mean much, but if all of the Y voters figured their votes didn't matter and stayed home, then the one vote for X would be pretty important. That said, I fully expect that my one vote won't make any difference in how things turn out, but I still feel compelled to cast it. For the democracy to function as intended, we ought have as many valid votes as possible; for me to expect votes from others but not vote myself simply because my one vote doesn't matter would be absurd.
- Prrometheus 18y agoMost of the ways that people rationalize their voting behavior can also be modified to rationalize the purchase of lottery tickets.