Many others will make their voice heard by refraining from doing so, and it is them that are most likely to hand over power to the wrong people. I once thought that 'people get the government they deserve' (at least that's what I've been led to believe Alexis de Tocqueville said regarding democracy) but now I think that people get the government others condemn them to have - and this is not because they majority voted for it but because the majority declined to vote!
Those who refrain from voting are, sadly, in my view quite pathetic (yes, I know that might be considered to be rude). Those who bleat about not having a voice or not being able to make a difference or not really being interested condemn the world to disaster and consign the future into the hands of people who are not fit for role.
So here's a heartfelt plea:
2 comments:
I think that this is the first post of yours I have read that I quite vigorously disagree with.
"Those who bleat about not having a voice or not being able to make a difference or not really being interested condemn the world to disaster and consign the future into the hands of people who are not fit for role."
So who do I vote for when I don't regard any of the candidates on offer as being fit for the role? Voting for one of 'em because I am told that it is wrong of me to waste my vote simply, in My view, gives them ever-less incentive to change into people who might be more fit. The threat of disaster, to me, is from the complacency of those who regard current politics as the way to make progress.
It is not, I promise you, lack of interest. If there was a "none of the above" option that actually had real negative consequences for the candidates then I, and many others I know, would most definitely use it. Spoiling ones ballot paper is a futile gesture at present.
Some would say that I should take it up myself if I don't like what is on offer; But to do so you have to play according to their rules, Matt 23:15 springs to mind. I have recently become tangentially involved in local medical politics, basically by refusing to play the expected game of Emperor's New Clothes. If I hear BS being spouted, I will call it as such - and there is plenty. So I was not entirely surprised when I was invited to join the governing board. I declined on two grounds, firstly that I regarded it as wasted time and effort trying to make a silk purse out of the sows ear that is current NHS reform, but more because they quite clearly preferred to have me inside their tent spitting (I may have used a slightly different word) out, that outside spitting in. To play by their rules would mean accepting rules I am unwilling to accept, which is hardly, or should hardly be, strange territory for a Christian.
Or, to put it rather more succinctly, I do not regard it as my task to find one candidate who might be marginally less bad than the others to therefore have some sort of right to my vote: I regard it as the task of the candidates to warrant receiving that vote.
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