Required Reading
Kyle’s recent article, Response to Luke: Anarchy, Power, Authority, and Will gets at the underlying reasons that voting is gravely wrong:
The present system where power, responsibility, authority, and value are all divorced from one another creates an environment that can only deteriorate. Authority can only be taken and used by force or the threat of force. Wrongs done in the name of that authority cannot be righted except through the extremely high cost and terribly uncertain outcomes of a faceless bureaucratic process in which no-one suffers the consequences of acting wrongly, or, failing that, the massive violence of resistance to the state or outright revolution. And every such incident widens the gap between the so-called collective will and the will of the individuals in which authority resides - thus requiring increased force to maintain that stolen authority, and a higher hurdle to overcome for those trying to convince, or worse, to force, the ?authorities? to allow their own interests to be recognized and pursued.
Voters sever themselves from responsibility for inflicting their will on their neighbors by pointing to politicians. Politicians use the illegitimate vote to claim authority to exercise power over other people without the consent of their victims. At the same time, those same political creatures sever themselves from responsibility for their actions by pointing to the voters. Enforcement agencies sever themselves from responsbility for their actions by pointing to the politicians. Employees of the judicial system sever themselves from responsibility for their actions by pointing to politicians. Isn’t it obvious that it’s a giant shell game?
Tags: kyle bennet, Voting