GuidoWorld

Why I’m not Voting

June 7, 2008 on 1:36 pm | In General |

Despite the fact that I do view the right to vote as a privilege I do not intend to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

I know many say will be angry with me and say that all citizens need to exercise their rights in order for us to maintain our freedoms, but I feel at this point a non vote is a bigger moral and ethical statement. It is not sloth or apathy which is keeping me from voting, but rather personal integrity.

I feel that in voting in current national elections I’m condoning a corrupt system which is actively preventing candidates which I could support from being on the ballot. In the last election Howard Dean’s campaign was derailed by the corporate media. In this election Ron Paul was marginalized, ignored and bashed by the status quo oriented corporate media. Dennis Kucinich, likewise, was depicted as a flake and a kook.

I’m not saying that I would have necessarily voted for any of the above candidates, but the way they were “electronically lynched” (to borrow from Clarence Thomas), was both obvious and terrifying.

It seems quite obvious that candidates who do not conform sufficiently to the status quo will no be allowed to mount a serious campaign. Of course, many will respond how the corporate media has attacked their candidate. I would respond to this by saying all candidates will be tarnished in this theatrical circus we call American politics. Our two party system almost necessitates this, but our desire to keep the status quo insures it.

Our national elections are carefully crafted to insure that little changes and the two parties continue to look and behave more similarly. A little well timed dirt is the quickest way to mold public opinion and craft a near perfect 50/50 voter response insuring that no grass root movement could exist or at least have no overwhelming mandate.

In other words I have no desire to participate in a highly managed social perception experiment which is what our presidential elections have become. A system whereby anyone advocating true change will not be allowed to make a serious case in front of the American public. Though all candidates will occasionally be attacked by the media, no candidate can survive an all out execution by the corporate media. Therefore, any candidate who gets to his party’s national convention only does so by the grace of the corporate media.

Now, I do admit that some of the things Obama says sound pretty good. And though people will point out how he’s being maltreated by the media, the fact still remains he is being allowed to participate while someone like Ron Paul was not. It’s not about being conservative or liberal, for Ron Paul is very conservative and Kucinich is fairly liberal. Yet, Paul, Kucinich and Dean all attempted to enter into the political debate things which were taboo. Things that actually could effect the status quo.

Obama sounds good just as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton did. Yet, we had to wait for Carter to leave the White House before he became an agent for real change, and Clinton for all his great words had policies which only further entrenched the status quo. His pro trade anti social welfare actions belied his promise for national health reform.

As corporate control of the media becomes stronger their management of elections and public perceptions increases. Our state and intelligence departments have spent a great deal of time and money developing the science of perceptual management. The same amount of sophistication that has gone into developing and understanding the psychology of torture techniques, has also gone into how to get the American public to support our economic and political policies.

In both instances our government has learned how to use confusion, fear, belief, pariotism and well used rhetoric as efficient tools to manage individual and group behavior. How good are they at this? You tell me. If you think this makes sense and is a natural logical conclusion based on the last fifty years of development in social psychology, then they are not doing so well.Yet, if you feel that such thought could only come from a paranoid individual bent on conspiracy theories, then they are doing a fine job.

We know that our government strives to enlist and use the best minds in the world to maximize our progress and maintain our position as the world’s superpower. It only makes sense that our government would use the research of the best minds in every scientific field including psychology. It is also reasonable to assume that our government is keenly aware of the increased importance public perception plays in a democracy using frequent elections. We also know that our government has had entire federal agencies devoted to domestic and foreign perception management and public relations.

Yet, despite all these facts one is considered a kook and a conspiracist nut if they question the official government version of any event or the integrity of our political process. In our society one is considered a conspiracist when they refuse to accept an official explanation because it defies the laws of physics or runs contrary to physical evidence.

For me a vote in this election is sending the wrong message to our government. It is saying that we do not smell the dead fish and that we believe what we are being told. It is saying that we believe our government and political system is just, and has our best interests at heart. It is saying that we are not aware that we are being lied to and manipulated and/or that their fear tactics have made us incapable of dissent or hope. It is saying that their techniques are working and they should continue along the path they are taking.

I know some of you truly believe Obama is the real deal and will effect true change. I hope you’re right, but the evidence does not favor this conclusion.

In the next post I will talk more on why I’m not going to vote, and then I will devote an entire post to how Obama may be made into a social and political fall guy to further solidify the status quo.

Jim Guido