Re: AUT: A Reply to Noam Chomsky

["George Ciccariello Maher" <gjcm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Abstentionism, in the US, fits perfectly into the agenda of the
>worst of the worst.

This may be true of a stable abstention rate, as exists now. But increased abstention could very easily create a virtuous cycle, in which such a decline reinforces the general belief that elections are shit, thereby further encouraging abstention. The fiction of democracy can maintain itself at 50% turnout, but it would be hard to see it doing so at 30% or 20%.

>And yes, people should be forced to participate into the crappy electoral system.

bizarre, disturbing, and internally contradictory to top it off.

> You are entirely free to cast an irregular vote. But I just don't buy it that someone who stays at home >and lets the spectacle pass by is necessarily making any kind of statement.
>Besides , as you know very well, saying nothing will be understood as consent, which makes the >argument that voting would be understood as consent a very trite one.

this is based on the same old ridiculous assumption that those not voting aren't doing anything else either [which is untrue]. more interesting to me is the ways in which precisely the opposite is manifested - i.e. people who feel that they have done their duty as a citizen by voting, and therefore don't do anything else...

geo


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