Embracing A Post-Voter World
The Futility Of Western Electoralism - And How To Replace It
It’s late election season for America, which means that if you reside in the West (or spend any significant amount of time on social media or streaming platforms) you’re undoubtedly exposed to a feverish deluge of strong opinions over who’s going to “save America” - or end it, whatever that means. You have, at present, two major political factions who seem nearly collaborative in their efforts to convince the masses how different they are from one another, for better or for worse. You have politics junkies and content creators from all ends of the digital universe proclaiming with a fervor normally reserved for pastors and used pickup truck salesmen that this is truly The Most Important Election Of Our Lifetime ™.
This is interesting, given that practically every Western political faction has claimed this for every election cycle I’ve been alive and paying attention to. Evidently, election importance seems to scale in perfect lockstep inversely with the decline of our material conditions. Yet despite this, here we are in 2024, with most of us seeing no escape from the crumbling empire that is the West outside of writing a name on a piece of paper, slipping it into a shoddy-looking box, and praying that whatever person is appointed to lead will achieve at least ten percent of what they promise to deliver if we write their name on that paper.
How Did We Get Like This?
It’s a question any sane person has undoubtedly, at the very least, thought of before. Time and time again, we support these political factions, only to watch them rise to power and shirk the vast majority of their proposed responsibilities in favor of agendas that seem to benefit a relatively tiny group of the most powerful among us. Further still, due to the questionable structure of our electoral system, we often find ourselves supporting one faction of “lesser evil” or another, because we let that same group of powerful individuals convince us that if we don’t, a greater evil will take power. There are, of course, alternatives, but the majority of the population would never “risk” lending these alternatives their support, because that means potentially compromising support for the more popular lesser evil faction, and thus taking the country in a less-then-desirable direction.
Worse still, whenever a viable alternative to these far-from-ideal lesser evils appears to gain prominence, they seem doomed to sabotage - inner or outer - in occasionally spectacular fashion. Take the American Green Party this election season, who after gaining considerable popularity, proceeded to alienate its base of supporters in an almost-choreographed manner, mere weeks before an election that could have seen them achieve historically high numbers in support. Year after year, decade after decade, we dust ourselves off and fight the good fight, with only a steadily worsening civilization to show for it. What’s the definition of insanity, again?
The Illusion Of Democracy
The truth that we seem unwilling to grasp with any finality is something that becomes very evident when stop seeing the forest from the trees: we don’t live in an actual democracy. From first-past-the-post voting’s severe limitations to lobbying that’s become so severe that billionaires are literally buying elections, it’s time to accept that any road that would be open to allowing the people of a Western nation any agency whatsoever over the direction they wish for it to take has been closed for a long time. Once we accept that our politicians are little more than mascots for the checklists of bourgeois whimsy, everything starts to make a lot more sense. This is no more evident than when you examine the affiliations our elected officials have with corporations and organizations who stand to gain from their policy changes, and it becomes crystal-clear when you then pair that with what actions these officials do end up taking.
Just look at AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby in America. For a very unpopular humanitarian crisis that Israel is causing, you’d think at least one of their political factions would want to garner favor with the masses by doing something about it, however, we can observe little more than hollow sympathy and complete inaction concerning the matter. However, when you research the amount of money that your average American politician has accepted from this group, any doubt about dots connecting is nigh impossible to ignore. You then need to understand that this is also the case for the majority of moneyed interests, and will undoubtedly arrive at the conclusion that the overwhelming interest of our “democratically-elected” politicians lies in the whims of those with more wealth than any of us could ever dream of.
I’d Like To Get Off The Ride, Please
The only real explanation for us continuing to tolerate this madness is the belief most of us hold that our voice still matters to some extent and that our vote can somehow produce meaningful change. At this point, there’s no real reason to continue maintaining this belief, which is why the corporate-owned media apparatus in the West invests so heavily in reinforcing this belief. We’re told on a daily basis, from every screen we own, by a chorus of shrill voices how important democracy is, and how much our participation in a system that is objectively rigged against us really matters. It doesn’t, and there’s ample evidence to suggest that it hasn’t for our entire mortal lives, and the only way out of this mess is for this sentiment to become not only popular but mainstream.
We all speak of direct action, general strikes, protests, mass civil disobedience, and yes, revolution. However, what we’re truly lacking is a class divide that is not discussed as widely as we need it to be, and that is belief in democracy. How much more successful would organizing and achieving solidarity be among a people who overwhelmingly believed that not only is our democracy deeply flawed, but a parody of the very word, itself? How more willing would we be to link arms with our proletarian brethren if we knew direct action was the only avenue for meaningful change in this Idiocracy sequel of a world we’re toiling away in? The only way we move forward and afford ourselves any hope of a fairer future than today or yesterday is to just. Let. Go.
A Population Unencumbered
By letting go of this false investment of our time, money, energy, and emotions, we free ourselves up for taking the fight where it always should have been taken - to the only real political faction in the Western world. Think of politicians like customer service agents, who despite having absolutely no control over how the company they work for manages its products or services (no, your feedback is not passed along - just trust me on this) are paid a salary to serve as a punching bag for validly disgruntled customers who feel cheated out of their ever-shrinking wallets. Our politicians are there to take the hits for what largely amounts to taking orders from those whom they truly are public servants for. We yell at Trudeau, Biden, or Trump because they’re the face of the actions our governments are taking. What they are not though is the mind, body, or soul of those actions. That would be the capitalists that they are eternally beholden to.
Once we liberate our fellow brothers and sisters from the shackles of delusion, we can take the fight to the faction that is truly running the show, and ignore the pro wrestling show that plays out every day for our own amusement and horror. Once the oxygen that electoralism sucks out of revolutionary action returns to the people, myriad avenues of action open up for a population finally willing to accept that it has to grind the machine of capital to a halt of its own free will. Who knows, just the sight of such a solidified and awakened labor force may be enough to bring the capitalist class - and its ghoulish political thralls - to its knees. We will never know for sure, though, as long as we maintain the erroneous notion that our fates belong in the hands of political factions.
Reject the system. Not just the two-party system, but the entire system. We have spent enough time and energy thinking emotionally when we live in a time and place where we must be thinking wisely. Our only recourse is to take the future into our own hands, because if we don’t, we may not have much of one to leave to future generations.