Get off the stage

[MoonShadow]

"All the world is a stage, and the people, merely players..."

-As You Like It, Act II; by William Shakespeare


We live in a world full of fictions.

Government is one such fiction.  Governments are merely an idea, given
form by those people who choose to work towards that idea.

No matter how well intentioned, nor how well written, the documents that
define the ideas of government; they are still just words on a page.  A
well formed fiction.

So what is a government, then?  It is that group of people who give their
time and their resources towards the fiction.  Like any group of people;
there are those among them with strikingly different views in interpreting
that fiction.

And, like any group of people, the flaws of those people will reflect in
the institutions that they create.  If the people are corrupt, the
institution will be corrupt.  If the people are violent, the agency will
be violent.  If the people are flawed; the government will, also, be
flawed.
So, no matter how well written that fiction may be; no institution, no
bureaucracy, no government; can ever hope to be a more perfect union, than
that of the people themselves.

Worse yet, every institution declines as the first generation; those who
truly believe in the fiction, pass control of the fiction to others.  In
part, because younger generations do not have first-hand knowledge of life
prior to the fiction, and so they come to expect that the fiction will
endure.  The grandchildren of the founders look at the buildings and
monuments of the fiction; and fully expect that the fiction is as certain;
is as permanent, as the concrete and stone of those monuments.

The institution also declines, in part, because the fiction has very real
influence on how the people think & act; and those that control the
narrative, also control those people.  This tends to attract the kind of
person who doesn't believe in fictions, but who is willing to play a part
to gain influence over the narrative.  These are exactly the wrong kind of
people necessary to maintain the best storylines.

So, before you go to the voting booths this fall, in an effort to choose a
new narrator, please remember that all storytellers are telling you more
fictions.

Perhaps it's time to write your own story?

-MoonShadow

[Chef Ramsay]

That's a nice and thoughtful narrative you've given and I've heard it many times before. Voting to some is a means of self defense but i terms of finances I like the idea of getting off the stage if one has the means. However, being one of the many that vote on election is relatively meaningless but if you're an elected republican party delegate as I am you have a lot more persuasion power w/ your elected officials and the candidates running that need your support. Furthermore, at state conventions you have more say in the direction the party is taking than merely being one of the voting public. People should look into becoming delegates in their party (major) of choosing.

[MoonShadow]

While it's true that delegates have the real power, they don't set the agenda either.  I've been both a Democratic delegate (a voting elector for Dennis Kucinich in 2000) and a Republican delegate (due to being a youth chair in 2010), and while the Repubs are much more democratic (ironicly) a single delegate cannot alter the agenda set by the state "leadership".  The Democrats are a mockery of their own name.

Regardless, the best one can do by voting is a form of self-defense, as you mentioned already.  I don't fault anyone for acting in their own defense, and I fully expect it.  I'm simply trying to point out the downside to the game, that defensive voting really is the best you can do.

[gogxmagog]

They should allow "down voting" like on reddit. More people would register and show up