I have been abstinent since my 18th birthday. No, not in that way. Since reaching legal age, I have abstained from voting.
Queue clucks of dissaproval. How irresponsible of me.
Among my politically inclined friends, this attitude invites criticism, though at this University, I would expect only the usual indifference. Apathy. Isn’t that the very thing I am admitting?
Everyone falls over themselves to howl about “voter apathy,” without ever considering that it may not be apathy at all. For many, it is antipathy.
I personally see little value in the Western democratic institution. If opinion polls are to be trusted, many others feel the same way.
The eagerness displayed by those willing to shred the Constitution and surrender those pesky civil liberties suggest they would really prefer to live in a banana republic.
Amendment I of the Constitution was deliberately succinct. I don’t see the wiggle-room in “Congress shall make no law” that the courts and legislatures insist is there. I am unlikely to ever burn a flag or make a racially hateful speech in public, but I would sure like to know that I could.
The liberal humanist democracy we have today just isn’t my cup of tea. I do not find the idea of it repugnant. It’s one of the more enlightened notions our species has come up with. Right up there with disposable chopsticks and global thermal nuclear war.
Ideals, however, never translate well from thought to action. The inevitable human element.
Democracy in theory: Self-determination for all. Democracy in practice: mob rule, triumph of the lowest common denominator. The information revolution promised instant knowledge on any subject; empowerment at the click of a finger.
In reality, we are empowered to consume an inexhaustible supply of pornography and download next week’s epsiode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Revolution? Wake up and smell the devolution.
We struggle daily under a tsunami of information instead of surfing it, we barely keep our heads above the water. The deluge of data is more than our mutant ape brains can handle. Logic is overwhelmed by sheer volume; there is no time to process or reason.
All opinions are derived from the mass media acknowledging that fact is the first step towards spontaneous thought.
So can you blame me for having little regard for your voting habits? An empty exercise designed to give you a false sense of involvement.
Just ask the 51 million people who voted for Al Gore to be president, or the 4.5 million who thought they elected Gray Davis another four years.
Not to say that I won’t participate in the democratic process. I always try to off some sort of absurdist statement.
For example, during the last presidential election, I walked into another polling place wearing a gas mask and wielding a platter of raw meat. The poor volunteers did not know whether to call the police or the health department.
This year? I can not imagine anything more absurd than actually voting, though I am undecided between Arnold Jackson, the Governator or Gallagher.
What a wonderful, wonderful world.
Kenneth Todd Ruiz, a senior journalism major, is managing editor of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at kruiz@ulv.edu.
