The ballot is stronger than the bullet

[Matthew N. Wright]

Dear community,

I'm putting together an article for the Bitcoin Magazine (October 2012, Issue #5) and I'd like your opinions.

One of our greatest and most respected leaders in the USA today has told us to vote our problems away instead of take arms against the government.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

What do you think about this? Should Bitcoin be defended with guns or lawyers and votes? If ballots were so strong, couldn't Lincoln simply have voted John Wilkes Booth's Philadelphia Deringer to not fire?



Notice: By responding to this thread, you give Bitcoin Magazine the right to freely publish your quote in the magazine.

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[myrkul]

Neither. Bitcoin needs no protection by governments, lawyers, or guns. So long as there is internet, and people to use it, there will be Bitcoin.

[AntiCap]

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

If ballots were so strong, couldn't Lincoln simply have voted John Wilkes Booth's Philadelphia Deringer to not fire?

*swosh* The sound of a point missing you by a mile.

I believe what he was talking about was society, not individual, strength.

So you're being provocative while trying to please the anti-vote crowd here. I get that. It's just that it's rather silly.

[hashman]

Dear community,

I'm putting together an article for the Bitcoin Magazine (October 2012, Issue #5) and I'd like your opinions.

One of our greatest and most respected leaders in the USA today has told us to vote our problems away instead of take arms against the government.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

What do you think about this? Should Bitcoin be defended with guns or lawyers and votes? If ballots were so strong, couldn't Lincoln simply have voted John Wilkes Booth's Philadelphia Deringer to not fire?

Notice: By responding to this thread, you give Bitcoin Magazine the right to freely publish your quote in the magazine.

Well these days things are a little different as anybody who is popular is basically not electable.  Vote fraud is entirely understood and expected as the big business as usual.  Saying that the votes aren't really going to count is kind of like saying that professional wrestling is scripted.  Who cares?  We still like the theater.  See how many people are willing to talk about unadjusted exit polls or verifiable voting systems.  Its much more likely that we let NPR tell us who to support and then enjoy yelling at Vince McMahon's FOX equivalent when he shows up on the screens.     

http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/wisconsin-recall-the-adjusted-final-exit-poll-was-forced-to-match-an-unlikely-recorded-vote/

Interestingly enough this is relatively modern phenomenon.  Even Malcolm X had more faith in the voting system than most of today's youth, as evidenced in his famous speech  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballot_or_the_Bullet

But that's all old news, what I want to hear is how block chains can be used as verifiable voting systems.  A one-bitcoin-one-vote system is now practical and could make representative democracy (which by the way is neither representative nor democracy) more than just theater.  Comparison to other crytographically secure voting systems please.  Cryptovotes ftw!   

[asdf]

Dear community,

I'm putting together an article for the Bitcoin Magazine (October 2012, Issue #5) and I'd like your opinions.

One of our greatest and most respected leaders in the USA today has told us to vote our problems away instead of take arms against the government.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

What do you think about this? Should Bitcoin be defended with guns or lawyers and votes? If ballots were so strong, couldn't Lincoln simply have voted John Wilkes Booth's Philadelphia Deringer to not fire?



Notice: By responding to this thread, you give Bitcoin Magazine the right to freely publish your quote in the magazine.

Both are means of using violent coercion to impose your values on others. Bitcoin needs to be defended from votes and bullets.

[nedbert9]

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

While this might have been true to a larger extent in Lincoln's time President Eisenhower heralded a new age of corporate-government symbiosis.

Eisenhower's warning was astounding for both the intelligence to extrapolate consequences of government co-dependency and the candor to speak out.  We will never again see a President with such integrity.

[FreeMoney]

ballot~=bullet

[check_status]

One of our greatest and most respected leaders in the USA today has told us to vote our problems away instead of take arms against the government.

Who's buttering your bread?
What has Bitcoin to do with rising up and taking arms against the government?
Bitcoin is not anti-government, but anti-corporation, or more precisely, anti-banks. In America, Bitcoin is an extension of the rights granted to Americans by the Constitution.

Constitution:

Preamble

We the People of the United States...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article 1, Section 8

The Congress shall have Power To...coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin

When evil men have bypassed Congress, coining money which they (The Federal Reserve, a banking conglomerate), not Congress, regulates the value of, are able to impose burdens upon Americans that would not occur if Congress had coined money and regulated it. A house divided will fall. Allowing a conglomerate of banks, who have no allegience to America, the right to coin money and regulate the value of it is the dividing of the American house, and America's fall will be at a time of the conglomerates choosing.

Article IV Section 2

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

No State shall...coin Money...(or)...make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts

Bitcoins are not coined by any State.

The Federal Reserve, a private banking conglomerate, has presented a threat to Congress's control of the monetary system. In the absence of any action by the Congress to take control of the coining of money away from the Federal Reserve, We the People have no choice but to abrogate this destructive design imposed by foreign corporations.

None of the content of this post may be abridged by any publication in any news, journal or any other form of print media, digital or otherwise, except by my explicit approval.