We are so lucky to have the right to vote are we not? People have fought for decades for the right to vote and have their say to elect the next government. It is, as they say, a great privilege to have the right to vote and is one of the cornerstones of a pluralistic democracy.. right?! In fact, we haven't had this right for very long in the great scheme of things. In Britain for example we have only had voting rights for around 150 years, before which time only around 3% of the population were allowed to vote! It has been exactly 100 years since all men over the age of 21 were allowed to vote, and just 90 years since women had the same rights. Democracy was a welcomed change after a millennium of kings and queens, some of whom were clearly out of their minds. King John was arguably the most evil king ever to have reigned, and was finally removed from power by the people. Henry VIII was famous for executing his wives, and Queen Mary Tudor (bloody Mary) executed hundreds of disagreeing religious people. So what a blessing that we now have the right to vote and elect our leaders ... right!? Well obviously not judging by the title of this post! So let me explain why I have never voted in my life, and why I will never do so in the future either. Each point on its own would be enough in its own right for me not to vote, so lets see just HOW many reasons I can come up with!
We have NO choice about which representatives are put up for election.
Did anyone actually notice that we don't get to choose WHICH people to vote for in the first place? It's not like we can actually choose the people who we want to vote for at all. In the UK and most countries we are presented with ONE candidate for each party in our constituency and we basically have to vote for them or else choose someone from a different party. Note that VERY few people will even vote for an alternative party even if they don't like the person representing them because people are SO loyal to their political persuasions. Therefore when we really look at it, we basically have to vote for whatever person is put up for election without any actual say or choice in the matter. How are these people actually chosen? Well in the USA you can say they are voted for during the primary elections, but even that is a farce because WHO actually decides who is put up in the first place? No one really knows! The media sure have their hand in the matter, and will make sure that any candidate that doesn't toe the party line will be utterly demolished, misrepresented or ignored. It is unheard of for the general public to actually choose their candidate. Does that not sound a bit odd?
Devastation of our planet, global warming, climate change, air pollution, species extinction
Our governments are responsible for the ensuing destruction of our planet. They not only do nothing to prevent it, but in fact encourage and promote it! The USA is a great example of this, with Mr Trump very comfortable to totally deny climate change in favour of promoting oil sales, and even removing their country from the ONLY global warming initiative to have ever achieved any measure of success. Our rainforest's are disappearing, and we are witnessing a loss of species at an alarming rate. The current rate of global diversity loss is estimated to be 100 to 1000 times higher than the (naturally occurring) background extinction rate and expected to still grow in the upcoming years. There is no way to measure the value of what we are losing on a daily basis in terms of life, potential medicines, and genetic variability. Governments around the world still allow and promote fossil fuels for cars and vehicles despite the unbelievable figure of 5.5 million deaths per year caused by smog and car related pollution. All this to keep the oil flowing and the coffers full!
The minority rule! No democracy without proportional representation
In the UK the Conservative Government was elected with less than 30% of the votes of the population (when you take into account only 60% of people vote!) . With the first past the post system, the number of people voting is more or less irrelevant! All that matters is if a particular constituency wins, and after that point the actual number of votes means nothing. It is very possible that a government can win an election without even having more votes than another party. Our voting system itself is corrupted and anything but democratic. Despite calls for electroral reform for decades, nothing has changed. You can learn more about this in this short movie.
The Problems with First Past the Post Voting Explained
There is no actual choice
No matter who wins an election, the result is the same. We never see a party offering any radical or significant change, and anyone who is brave or strong enough to offer this will be quashed. Bear in mind that politicians are bought out and controlled by those who really have power, that is to say those who have most money. Politics hates change, and the whole system is set up to resist it. It is only through violent and bloody revolution that we have seen change in the world, not through elections! Today, if the most alternative party were to win the election we would see almost nothing change. Let us cast our minds back to President Obama, who started out with all the best will in the world to bring on change.. and yet every thing he tried to do was subverted and stopped by the machinery of the State. Congress were able to stop and even undo the presidents will, and on the small occasions where he was successful, they were later undone by Mr Trump. There is no choice, and there is no scope to really change anything practically speaking.. SO if that is the case why do we even bother voting in the first place?
Governments are puppets, they don't actually decide anything.
It is a myth that politicians even have the power! In today's world it is big business who pull the strings, and will do whatever they need to do however unethical or illegal to ensure that their desires are met. Lobbying today is a multi billion dollar business, and basically ensures that those with money will continue to have their will imposed on the people. In fact most politicians are business people with clear conflicts of interests. Companies now devote massive resources to politics, and their large-scale involvement increasingly re-directs and constricts the capacities of the political system. The consequence is a democracy that is increasingly unable to tackle large-scale problems, and a political economy that too often rewards lobbying over innovation. Individual corporations have more political power in the early twenty-first century than at any time in history, and governments are either unwilling or unable to mount any systematic approach to addressing even the problems of their own community, let alone those of the larger society.
Promises are never fulfilled
How many promises need to be made and broken for people to step back and ask, why do I vote if they do not keep their promises? Theresa May has broken no less than 6 major promises in her first term a prime minister! Theresa May came to power promising a government which would put working people first and which would address the big challenges. One year on that promise lies in tatters. It is business as usual, with promises not only broken but also the exact opposite happening. The Tories have broken promises and left people worse off. They’ve slashed support for working people and cut public services. In schools class sizes are soaring, in the NHS waiting lists are up, meanwhile working people’s wages are suffering with real wages lower than before the economic crash. Theresa May pledged to reform the criminal justice system and tackle race inequality within it. But the government instead dropped this entirely from the Queen’s Speech. The list goes on and on, and its not just the UK. We KNOW now that the promises made by politicians mean nothing, and there is no course of action to make them accountable for their lies and deceit to gain power. With this in mind, it does make me wonder why people continue to vote when we all know that our candidates will say whatever they have to say to get votes and be elected. Brexit was a farce, and a great example of total lies made to get a vote. Politicians are the best and most expert liars that we have ever witnessed, and yet still we continue to show support and vote. EVEN though we know they are compulsive liars. Why?
Ordinary people have been systematically denied their fair share of the country’s wealth.
The vast majority of the population of the world live in poverty and have huge loans and debts. Their situation is only worsened by the total inability of governments to address the inequality of wealth, and today they continue to support bankers and commercial institutions that essentially rape the poorest people and plunge them into terrible poverty. Governments set up the banking system, and allow banks to take as much as possible from the poor, whilst relieving the rich from any fair share of their contributions. Nothing is done to ensure that tax loopholes are closed, and the biggest companies today manage to get away with paying the lowest taxes, whilst those on the bread line are forced to pay ludicrous amounts of tax. To take an extreme example Facebook is indicated as having an overall tax rate of 40.5%. I can actually tell you Facebook did not however pay $2.506 billion in income taxes. You have to dig a little for that number, and it is in fact only $273 million. That means that Facebook actually paid 10.9% of its pretax income in income taxes. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as most of the corporate tax evasion that happens is very hard to track and know. Accountants are experts at hiding money, and no government is really on the case to change this. The result is that the vast majority of money earned by the biggest companies in the world is all hidden offshore, in banks that profit by ludicrous amounts. It is these banks that decide policy, not the government.
In the meantime the poorest people pay the highest interest rates. This is totally nonsensical as it is the poorest people who should pay the lowest interest rates, and should be given the most support when forced to take out loans to cover basic life necessaries such as a home or car. Poor people cant afford to buy a car outright and so as a result have to take out loans and end up paying even double or even more than the actual cost of the car. When they can not afford to repay it, they lose their home or car outright and with no compensation. Meanwhile the fat cats who lend out this money profit even more from the repossession and resale. There are many cases in the USA of the same car being repossessed even dozens of times, only to be resold time and time again providing huge profits to the banks, and nothing to poor unfortunate victims of a corrupt system.
Our response to climate change has been abysmal.
Our world is in crisis, and the way in which our resources are being used and abused has reached a totally unsustainable level. How can we possible vote for governments that squander and pillage our planet as though it has no value or meaning. Our world is unique, irreplaceable and the greatest miracle we have ever discovered in this universe. Planet earth is precious beyond words, and yet our governments allow us to trash it as though it has no value. The seas are polluted with the toxic dumps, plastics, waste. The sky is full of poisonous chemicals. Our food is sprayed with toxic chemicals. Our air is so polluted that in many countries it is not even possible to see the sky. Our climate is changing past the point that we can even manage to stop it, and yet almost nothing is done by the worst offenders to change it. And yet people still vote? Why!
Conclusion
I'm sorry this has been such a long post! It could have been MUCH MUCH longer, but I think you get the idea. Government is about power, money and control. As governments become ever more powerful, we are finding it ever harder to do anything or say anything that can make a difference. Whilst many people say that it is our duty to vote, I believe VERY strongly that it is in fact our duty to abstain from voting. What clearer message could we send to the powers that be if no one voted! What would happen to the power structures if we take back our mandate and give a vote of no confidence instead. Not voting is the ONLY voice we have left to show our discontent. If our ballot papers had an option to abstain or say NO you can be sure that I would be the first in the queue to vote! Isn't it interesting that there is no such abstention box? None of the above isn't an option!
You may say that we MUST have a government to prevent total chaos, but let me tell you that is a total illusion. Belgium for example had no government for almost a year in 2010, and things were just fine! You would think that a country would fall apart in the absence of a central government. Just look at how Americans start panicking when their government shuts down. But not the Belgians who managed just fine with the help of a caretaker government, a well-oiled bureaucracy, and a naughty sense of humor even as their politicians spent a year and a half bickering away. It is NOT the government who run our country, we need to understand this. It is our governments who prevent change, hold us back, and make sure that as much money as possible is in their control and direction. It is our government who cause poverty, inequality, and the terrible state that our planet is in today.
So let me ask you now, why does anyone vote? Voting has to be one of the greatest failings of human kind to its own success and longevity, and even survival! A very pertinent question and one that many do not really understand is why we continue to vote. Perhaps voting is a way for us to relieve ourselves from our moral and civil duties? Maybe voting is the easy way out!? Is voting a guilt free way of living so that we can just blame our governments for the state of the world? Do we really want to take responsibility for our world? I believe that is the reason why many people continue to vote. It is the ultimate denial! So next time the ballot boxes open, I hope you remember this post and ask yourself if you want to be brave and step out and make your voice heard in the most passive but powerful of ways.
NO VOTE is a VOTE for change!
Let me leave you with my good friend Russell Brand!
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