If Voting Changed Anything, They’d Make It Illegal

Among my many mild to moderate obsessions, I have an odd fascination with anti-capitalist and anarchist graffiti. Banksy, probably the best known among them, never fails to amaze me; I’ll confess to a mild to moderate Mancrush, and a (unfounded) suspicion that he looks something like Spiderman. A guy can dream, right? Anyway, there’s a decent community for this sort of work on the internets (where I spend all my time), and I’ve managed to dig up a fair bit of interesting stuff, including the picture that opens this post.

I’m always glad to find that I’m not alone in this sentiment. I think it’s a tricky feeling to distinguish, one that I’m not sure I have even made clear to myself, much less to other people. I’ve written on this blog before about my feelings on capitalism and democracy, but I think it’s important to stress again (mostly so I don’t get arrested) that my response to government isn’t so much fear as loathing. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking, but I don’t classify myself as one of those people convinced the government is watching him through his TV – I don’t have a TV, and if George Bush wants to watch me alternately play air guitar and cry at episodes of Friends, he’s welcome to stick a camera in my dorm room. What I do resent is that someone is trying to tell me what’s good for me, particularly when that person is wrong. That person, in a democracy, generally happens to be someone that doesn’t know a lot nor have my best interests in mind. Consider the ideal outcome of a democratic vote – at the very best, what you see is a country tailored to the median individual. I’m not sure if you’ve ever spent time in North Florida, but the median individual is not a very pleasant person. Bell curves were invented for a reason, and that reason is so that smart people can make fun of dumb people with graphs. 

Digressions aside, I don’t trust democracy and I don’t trust politicians. These two go hand in hand, because people who become politicians are people who are good at fooling the majority of Americans. PT Barnum, in my estimation, either could have become president or at least certainly understood what it takes. I don’t buy political messages that promise radical change while remaining popular, because (and this is really elitist, but it’s okay because I love elitism) things that become popular immediately become circumspect in my eyes. A quick consultation of the historical record will back me up on this – by historical record, I actually mean Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black, which is pretty close to a magnum opus

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow. 

So there. I don’t trust democracy because a Hollywood star told me not to.

 

*In progress – more to come following class.