Paradox of Voting

The more people vote, the less chance each vote has of affecting the outcome of the election. This is called the Paradox of Voting. Some economists use this as a reason not to vote. I don't think it's a good reason not to vote (there are plenty of other good reasons not to vote). However, it is a good reason to not harass anyone about voting. The most common thing I hear from liberals and other supposedly civic-minded people when they learn that I don't vote is that it's awful and I don't get to complain about politicians.

First of all, it's not awful. Voting in a government election is a form of consent. Even those people who know that I'm an anarchist occasionally still entreat me to vote "because this is such an important election!" Well, uh, guess what? It's not. What's that? We need to replace the Big Oil and defense contractor-owned corporate stooge with a Big Bank and finance-owned corporate stooge? Why, yes, that is a meaningful Change which will bring Hope!

Second, voting isn't magic. Voting is just a method of collective decision making. There are others. I like consensus-building. It probably wouldn't work on a national level, but it produces far more meaningful results. When you tell me that you want me to go vote, you're not really saying you want me to vote. What you're saying is that you want me to agree with you on the value and legitimacy of the State government which you support at the moment. However, I do not support any such government, and I will not feel guilty for doing so. Give me a ballot with "None of the above" on it, and then I might go vote, because then voting would suddenly be a meaningful action again. It would not just be a choice of oppressors, as participation in any coercive institution is, but a form of expressing political will — in this case, the will to not have any of the jokers who call themselves politicians decide my economic and legal fate.

Finally, let's see what George Carlin has to say. I am a bit smug about coming up with that bit of wisdom before I ever saw this clip. The few times I have had the privilege of actually saying this to someone they end up grasping inarticulately at reasons why it's wrong before quickly ending the conversation. Alas, few people like talking about politics — or political theory, in any case. I look forward to donning my red and black "I DIDN'T VOTE" button this coming November. It generates just the right ratio of curiosity to contempt (I figure, if you're contemptuous to begin with, I'm not gonna get through to you in any case).

This concept has a sort of inverse corollary when it comes to consumption, which I will talk about in a future post.