In 2008 I wrote a piece entitled The only two choices for the 2008 Presidential election: Nader vs Solzhenitsyn in which I concluded with the following words:
If you have any faith left at all in the American democracy, then, by all means, vote Nader as any other vote is a vote against the American Republic (and for a Fascist Empire). If you, like myself, believe that the system cannot be reformed no matter what, then stay away from it. Limit yourself to an “internal exile” and follow Solzhenitsyn’s advice to live not by lies. This method brought down the Soviet Union and it will also eventually bring down the American Empire.
Now, four years later I will argue that after 4 years of the Obama presidency the first option has now vanished and the only logical, pragmatic and moral choice is to look at reality and act accordingly. Here are some of the key features of the reality we live in:
1. There is no correlation whatsoever between what a presidential candidate promises to do and what he then actually does. While Obama is probably the worst liar in US history, he is far from being alone: from Papa-Bush’s “read my lips, no knew taxes”, to Clinton’s “liberalism”, to Baby-Bush’s “modest foreign policy” to, finally, Obama’s mega-orgy of broken promises and lies, the undeniable fact is this: there is absolutely no correlation between what you vote for and what you get.
2. Interestingly, US policies, internal and external, are remarkably consistent. Yes, they are flexible in their tactics, but their strategy and goals do not change: external imperialism internal plutocracy. Thus, there is no evidence whatsoever that the outcome of elections influences US policies.
3. The choice between the Demoblicans and the Republicrats is, obviously, a false choice. For the vast majority of Americans that “choice” is as meaningless as the choice between the SA and the SS in Germany: yeah, there are nuances and the two camps hate each other, but they are fundamentally of the same party.
4. No change in US history has ever been achieved by the ballot box. All the changes in US history have been achieved in the streets and through social movements.
5. The US regime is not a “one man one vote” democracy but a “one dollar one vote” plutocracy. Considering that the top 1% own more than the bottom 90%, it is easy to see why voting in the USA makes absolutely no sense at all and, worse, no difference either.
6. The primary purpose of elections in the USA is to give an illusion of pluralism, of choice, of democracy. It is to stupidify the people and make any talk of regime change look subversive and un-American (even though even the Founding Fathers did foresee a situation in which the People could overthrow an anti-people regime).
7. The secondary purpose of elections in the USA is to give the regime a thin but indispensable veneer of legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the planet.
8. The third purpose of elections in the USA is to make each person voting a de-facto accomplice to the evil deeds of the US regime. How can a putatively innocent American say “not in my name” when, in fact, he/she gave his seal of approval to the regime itself (by voting) and possibly to the administration in power (by voting for the winning candidate)?
Bottom line: if you go and vote next Tuesday, you will not only act with a total disregard for undeniable facts and basic logic, you will soil your soul by becoming an accomplice to all the actions which the regime in power will commit in your name. This is why today I will be far more blunt and direct than in 2008 and tell you this: if even the election of Barak Obama – the worst liar in US history – did not convince you of the futility of voting, nothing else will. If even after Obama you are capable of seriously seriously believing that by voting for the lesser evil you are not voting for evil nonetheless, you are morally bankrupt. Make no mistake, voting for evil, any evil, is still a vote for evil.
Voting in these upcoming Presidential elections is both terminally stupid and deeply immoral.
What is the alternative?
It is rather obvious: do not vote and, even more importantly, tell all your friends not to vote. Help them take the Red Pill and bring them back to the real world, not the media-induced illusion they live in. And then, with your friends, fight the regime itself, the puppeteers rather than their puppets. How?
Not through violence, no need for that at all. All that is needed is to follow Solzhenitsyn’s advice: live not by lies. Make sure that the regime does not survive through you, through your vote, for example. Make fun of it, humor is a devastating weapon. Never voluntarily show any respect for the regime’s symbols. Sever all your voluntary exposure to the regime’s mass propaganda machine otherwise known as the “corporate media”. Do not own a TV or a radio, never subscribe to a newspaper, always get your information pro-actively, through the Internet, and only from sources you have good reasons to trust. Last, but not least, use this once-ever-four-years opportunity that the regime gives you to tell it to go and screw itself, it ain’t much, but it sure is better than sheepishly playing it by the rules and, like a dumb and obedient robot, drop your ballot in the box.
We, as individuals, cannot change the world we live in (although united with others we often can). But what we can do is safeguard our own dignity and honor by denying our participation in, or assistance to, the regime which oppresses us all.
The Saker
You don’t have to vote for a Republicrat like Obama there is also the option of voting for the Greens which also makes a symbolic statement against the regime. I believe that’s what Chris Hedges is doing.
I believe in the long run the Empire is doomed just as the Soviets were; either it will suffer a military defeat, most likely from China or at some point the dollar will collapse or both. Meanwhile building a left opposition is eminently worth doing; even if there is no chance of it taking power it can build up resistance to the Plutocracy. Elections can be part of that process although not the most important part.
@Robert: yup, Hedges and Chomsky will be voting Stein, thereby expressing their rejection of the two main candidates but thereby ALSO expressing their acceptance of the legitimacy of the system, the regime. While I understand their point of view, I cannot agree with it. For me, the Obama years have finally proven that the entire system is a farce, a lie, and I think that it is wrong to pretend like something can be changed by the ballot.
YMMV of course.
Cheers!
The Saker
That sums up my own view very well indeed!
If Ron Paul had run on a third-party ticket, I might have said “Ron Paul vs. Solzhenitsyn.” However, I think Paul was likely very smart not to do that.
Ron Paul’s run served a good purpose. He woke up a lot of people (mostly the young!). In the long term, that is more important than anything.
My own suspicion is, that most of the young people who were awakened and energized by Ron Paul’s campaign, will go on to see the futility of all politics, and the human limitations of Austrian theory. As they get older, their philosophy will (I hope) become more mature, balanced and nuanced. After all, libertarians of an earlier generation (my own) often got their start with Ayn Rand’s novels, but all but a handful moved on to more adult things as they got older.
This is the first generation of young people upon whom I look with any amount of hope at all. My own generation (the Boomers) were a spiritual disaster. Narcissistic, self-righteous and self-absorbed, they convinced themselves that they did God a service by blasting the foundations of whatever was good, healthy and decent about the society they inherited. The following generation (“X”) was largely a victim of the destruction wrought by the Boomers.
Now, it seems that the upcoming generation is prepared to learn from the bad choices of their elders, and resolve to do better when their time comes. I pray that they will get their chance to do so.
4. No change in US history has ever been achieved by the ballot box. All the changes in US history have been achieved in the streets and through social movements.
There is another source of change, and you hint at it in the closing paragraph: The seizure of the mass media by organized Jewry has been the main instrument in the conversion of the American political class from one that served primarily business instruments to one that now serves organized Jewry. This is even more important than the power wielded by the Jewish financial class.
Today, every policy implemented in America is one that accords with the desires of the organized Jewish community. Whether it’s endless wars for Israel, bringing the full force of the US State Dep’t to bear upon nations that are ‘antisemitic’, the promotion of multiculturalism, hostility to traditional values and beliefs, unrestrained immigration, and the demographic displacement of the European-descended gentile majority in the Western world – all are objectives sought, sometimes solely, by organized Jewish community.
Kevin MacDonald provides one such example of the influence of Jews on public consciousness in even seemingly innocuous entertainment like the Archie Bunker show.
Of course, if the Jewish grip on media power were broken, politics and policy in America (and in much of the ZOGpuppet western world) could turn on a dime.
1) Well that’s not exactly true they do promise support to Israel and allied governments like Georgia.
Campaign promises don’t really mean anything as policy both foreign and domestic are based on the geo-political and economic circumstances at the time.
9/11 shifted US policy towards Afghanistan something Russia was advocating prior to 9/11.
2) I guess as an American you would internal development between the 2 parties and how they would deal with things like the 2008 economic crisis but in foreign policy there is a huge shift between a Republican Mid East centred focused foreign policy and that of the Democrats towards Europe securing oil and gas transit through Turkey and aligning Europe against Russia.
Under Clinton we went from working with Bin Ladin and the jihadist’s to Bush fighting them.
3) They have other choices they can make including outsiders within both parties Ron Paul, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich.
The problem is 3rd party politicians have no popular support or good policies and do not offer any real solutions.
If you were running for President what would be some of the policies you would set out both foreign and domestic that differ from the Democrat and Republican party.
4) Bullshit. Street advocacy and protests have never achieved anything unless they are coordinated with powerful interests and private foundations like the New Left and Vietnam or the MLK’s civil rights movement that had an ulterior motive
What did the Iraq war protects achieve or occupy wall street?
5) Its true that financial and media support dominate the 2 party system in the US like every other country but what other system to you propose as an alternative or examples?
Mr. Burns Endorses Romney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltCIEbLMaQg
Other systems are theocracies aligned with the government which results in economic stagnation to a degree and wide spread corruption.
6) There are other choices than the 2 party candidates.
No one is stopping you from running even in the Republican and Democratic parties. Even David Duke got elected on a Republican ticket to the House of Representatives in Louisiana.
7) The system works reasonably well that you can criticise that is why it has legitimacy.
8) Frankly the evil deeds of the US are laid out before the public and they vote and approve of the candidates/parties position. It’s not like they did not have candidates within both parties against foreign wars and involvement in countries across the world.
Solzhenitsyn like other Soviet defectors talked about freedom, human rights, etc but when the wall fell they had no actual practical solutions for Russia who with a few exceptions like Solzhenitsyn worked with western interests against Russia like Goldfarb and a bunch of former spies and military personal residing in Europe and the US.
I discovered bitcoins on may 30 through a corbettreport video on youtube.
First I was mad about how I didn’t see anything about it on january or something, then after reading about it’s technology and the reason Satoshi Nakamoto build up all this, the dots just connected and a lot of social and economic problems I have seen presented in hundreds of documentaries, books and articles were solved by this key variable.
We don’t need a mass awareness movement, we don’t need a political reform, we don’t need an armed revolution, we don’t need a global activist movement to pass new laws on the congress.
We don’t need to do anything to just take away the power that the established institutions use to manipulate us.
We just have to start accepting bitcoins.
– jutajata on June 18, 2011, 08:37:36 am Re: “Allinvain $500,000 theft & Black Friday related? CIA / Banker Attacks?” https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=18670.msg236503#msg236503
Last night – the night before election day – a US soldier phoned into a talk radio station and said, roughly, “there are soldiers right this minute battling the Taliban for your right to vote. So I urge listeners to exercise tomorrow the right we are fighting for.”
I am NOT voting.
We can vote for war,
or on the other hand,
we can vote for war.
I am not voting for war so some soldier is sent out to fight for my right to vote for war.