Why not?
I can respect libertarians that vote for a Gary Johnson, writes in a Ron Paul, themselves, Cthulhu, their comatose third cousin or dead childhood dog. I know of some that vote Libertarian Party to basically build up its legitmacy, but eh…me linking to Johnson’s campaign site or to a LP-friendly organization like the Mises Institute or linking to a free PDF copy of Henry Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson (pdf) probably does the same amount of damage in a fraction of the time—I’m not a member of the LP and I’ve little interest in really supporting it.
But this post is less about the crimes of politics and more about doing what I enjoy in life, one of which is not being herded willingly into a large room to press buttons for cash and prizes. So, in true Austrian economic fashion, as the final arbiter and most competent allocator of my resources (mostly time), coupled with the fact that voting produces little to no satisfaction for me, here’s a serious list of things I may do with my extra hour or so of time that yields the most satisfaction for me. Enjoy!:
- Roughhouse with my 14 month old son.
- Read with my 7 year old daughter.
- Watch The Walking Dead with my wife.
- Read non-Wikipedia resources about the fascinating subject of cargo cults.
- Write another chapter in my book which will never get done, then
- lurk NaNoWriMo’s forums for partial manuscripts and laugh at all the goober writers that scatter adverbs like appleseeds.
- Fondly recall what is perhaps my most alpha male move, four years ago, when I elected myself to public office with one vote and then didn’t accept the position.
- Pray for Christians worldwide, whatever their political beliefs, to realize the state is the worst solution to implement God’s plan for the world.
- Make and enjoy a nice cup of coffee, courtesy of Nicholas Coffee (even though they are into fair trade scamery), then workout until I can’t feel my fingertips.
- Check my blog to see if this posted. I use WordPress, which, unlike government programs, is free, very reliable/effective, and no coercion was involved.
- Enjoy the nice fall weather by sneaking in a solid raking sesh. Similarly I can
- bike past the school where I would be voting, on my way home from the bus stop. Just because.
Cthulhu lawn sign photo by ThinkBaker.
* I’ve heard every reason to vote under the sun, and some reasons over it, and you’re not smart enough to come up with something new. But by all means, please convince me otherwise.
** Pay special attention on that page to the South Africa example.
6 Comments
These are all fantastic things to do. Today I will be working for 8 hours and then leading a group of runners from my church and helping them to actually make a real difference in their lives. I’m looking forward to it!
Interesting! Running as in running or as like a metaphor for something scandalous?
Yep, that’s pretty much the way everybody votes–for cash and prizes! And with Obama, you win free birth control and inoculations (not really, but….)! Congratulations! I put in a vote for local issues that will actually affect my life and to help GJ get his 5% and at least be on the ballot, but alas, I’m also not a member of the LP, either, so it was just a last ditch hope for somebody halfway decent to get…..5%?? It’s that stupid.
I actually think that the “cash and prizes” thing just makes the whole process immoral, because the voter is giving sanction and support for the government to use force (in the end) to achieve a goal.
What’s even worse is that people think they are doing good things by voting. It’s impossible to be moral by using guns to initiate transactions.
The only way I can see voting as being “fully moral” is if the vote is to repeal existing laws that use force, or to vote for someone who will relinquish the use of force more than utilize it (I don’t think it’s possible for a politician to not use force but they can mitigate by “doing less”, either by their own initiatives or by those placed under them).
Yes, it’s absolutely immoral. I wish more people would understand that. I almost wrote a rant on do-gooders the other day, but I restrained myself. Basically, the rant was to the effect of do-gooders are evil because, instead of starting grassroots movements and soliciting donations by the sweat of their brows, they’re lazily using government guns to force all of us to support their causes. Well, I guess they’ll never go down in history like Clara Barton!!
Right now, government coercion is just an abstraction to most people because it’s so far removed from our attention. But if you show them how it’s fundamentally no different than person A holding a gun to person B to do X, you may get through to them. Maybe. It’s a lot to concede that point because it means that everything they know about government action is based on an immoral series of actions.
Save for unrealistic ethical dilemma-type of situations (“what if your friend had a nuke strapped to him?”), I can’t think of any reasonable counterarguments.