I have, by no means, been following the staged celebrity gossip show known as “elections“, but what little I have been exposed to has birthed the following thoughts in my mind:
The trick of the thing is this: who actually wins is irrelevant. Either way, the system is designed to perpetuate it with only minimal impact derived from the substance of the person who is actually at the helm. More than that though, the important thing is that in the early stages of the contest - at least - that you have some candidate who more or less represents any significantly vocal minority. I’m not talking about skin color so much, although that’s obviously a factor at times. I’m just talking about value systems. You need a candidate early on who can be the champion for people who heretofore have not had a voice, so that suddenly, they become sparked with hope that something might change, that things might actually go there way, this time - finally.
The point is: get people invested emotionally, even if they know their ambitions won’t be fulfilled, even if they know their candidate simply can’t win. Just get people into the game and talking about it and you’re halfway there. Bread & circuses for the commoners. The character and underlying substance of the nobility doesn’t change simply because costumes are changed between scenes. The only question they have is, can we still get people to pay to come see our show?
Beyond that, the most useful mental model I’ve concocted for myself to understanding and navigating electionSpace is this: what we call “The United States of America” is a publicly-held corporation, of which all citizens are in essence stockholder-members. You’re a stockholder insofaras you’ve added value into the corporation’s commonwealth through your labor, spending and investment. You’re not voting for a president of a nation, but the CEO of a corporation whose sole purpose is to protect and increase the common wealth of its stockholders. It doesn’t guarantee freedom and justice for all and it never did.
Two Techniques Which May Be More Effective Than Voting, Long-Term
- Instead of spending your time watching the presidential version of American Idol, take that time and invest it learning about how corporations work. Start your own corporation, start your own business, make money, protect yourself and your family, and increase the value of your community. Make things better in your immediate vicinity instead of relying on someone else far away to do it for you.
- The citizens of the United States of America can spontaneously join together to form new corporations which better reflect the interests of their shared value community, and over which they will have more direct control. Imagine this scenario: if everyone of voting age in the US formed their own corporations individually, then invested a portion of their profits into a larger corporation which would hire lobbyists to go to Washington, DC and actually directly impact decision-making in the way that all the other big corporate interests do it: with deal-making, bribery, etc etc. Don’t surrender your sovereignty; use it as leverage.
- If all else fails, go outside and plant a tree - preferably something you and your neighbors can eat later. Sneak around your neighborhood at night planting food crops.
If you’re too lazy to do that, then you deserve what you’ll get and you can always wait for King Conan to roll in with the tanks and save you.
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11 Comments
Another fun business idea, although this is almost certainly illegal (so don’t do it, assholes!): sell your voting authority to foreigners or directly to transnational corporate entities. In other words, find out what their agenda is, figure out which candidate supports it and RAKE IN THE CASH!!! For extra points, organize entire neighborhoods and demographic voting blocks and SELL!!! SELL!!! SELL!!! your votes away! At least then you’ll be getting your money’s worth!
any ’specially recommended sources for the beginner?
I’m Tiny Ocean and I TOTALLY SECOND THIS MESSAGE (and seal it with a high five).
No, sorry! Maybe other readers have recommendations? Wikipedia is always a good place to start learning terminology anyway. Then you can at least navigate the waters…
You’re right about this. There are routes to empowerment we all have access to. They’re being coopted by the gov’t but that’s Big Brother’s job. Big Brother has legitimate disasters that affect us all whether we like it or not anyway. Here’s what “they” give in exchange for your cooperation. It’ll be more valuable in the future.
http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308
This is good stuff but for one thing: We’re customers, not stockholders.
Which is why this rings true:
Marketing 101.
But if your analogy prefers to insist that we are stockholders then the purpose of the President/CEO is to enrich the executives at the expense of the stockholders while the whole company goes bankrupt. The United States of Enron.
None of that changes anything else you wrote though, I just think people should keep in mind what side of the glass they’re standing on.
Whether we’re customers of stockholders, there is still a level of reliance on the value/energy we put into the machine. But hey, sustainable/green business practices are going to save everybody, right?
we are more like the holders of bonds, which are evidence of debt, but are incapable of redeeming them for value.
if you want to learn quickly how commerce works, sell drugs. otherwise any learning you get will be through the tax code, which is part of my first comment.
interestingly, regarding the selling of drugs, the government relies on the selling of drugs and other aspects of the underground economy as a way of keeping the peace. without it this game of slavery would have descended back into civil war a long time ago.
look at how closely the eye of government is held on all manner of commerce, to the point where they use tax rebates as a way of staving off a recession. this does little to help the plight of any individual, but merely injects a few billion extra un-earned dollars into the economy to keep the consumer spasm pumping…..
OMG!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_in_exile
http://www.detaxcanada.org/filingT1.htm
speaking of hijacking the natural flow of commerce……..
the reason why we can never cash in our bonds is because we are feudal slaves, as evidenced by the history lesson outlined above.
gotta love that crazy old pope.
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[...] I take back what I said before. Actually, no, I amend it. That’s my right as an American. I was riding my bike through the streets of Hampden and got to thinking: people who are truly powerful simply act. They don’t make excuses or explanations or ask others for permission. Elections are after-the-fact rituals designed to get everybody else on board for things which have already been decided, and in all likelihood are well underway. You’re not surrendering your authority by voting because you don’t have any. You haven’t developed it. Watch HBOs Rome! Articles With Similar Themes: [...]