The Politics of Not Voting
This May, less than an estimated sixty percent of eligible Canadian voters will head to the polls to cast their ballots for their members of parliament, still holding on to the belief that modern democracy remains an important and viable system of government. The other remaining forty percent will stay at home, at the office or school, due to disillusionment, generally apathy or willful ignorance. A large portion of these non voters fall into a demographic category commonly known as ‘young adults.’
Coincidentally, this same demographic also makes up the majority of both this magazine’s readership and the fast growing E.D.M. scene across the globe. (Not counting the odd geriatric specimens who still refuse to come to terms with the fact that time forgets no one, no matter what ridiculous accessories or pseudo-eccentric accoutrements they throw in the mix. *see bongo drums). This is all a roundabout way of saying it’s you, yes you, at least statistically speaking. Thanks to non participating assholes like you, with every skipped election, Canada inches closer to becoming the same sort of self imploding mess that’s happening down south. And though your naive high school civics teacher might have convinced you that sparking up on the legislative grounds on April 20th counts as a valid form of political action, rest assured, you’re still half assing it. Whether you want to be or not, your refusal to vote just makes you someone else’s tool; someone who has a vested interest in seeing you distracted, apathetic and blase’ to the real issues affecting Canada. Big things are at stake here, and your lazy ass is shitting the bed, acting like it’s nothing because you’re unable to smell it.
Those who don’t vote as part of a refusal to inform themselves about politics on average have a lower level of education and also tend to come from lower income backgrounds. While this is arguably a symptom of failures in the public education system and thus the government for not providing them with adequate funding and support, it is also the result of the vicious cycle of poverty and the sense of alienation and disempowerment that it entails. Like poverty, political attitudes are inherited. If you’re poor and worrying about where your next meal or rent is going to come from, it’s no wonder you haven’t taken the time to figure out what the various parties really stand for, let alone identify with a candidate who you will likely have little, if anything, in common with. Plus, all the wonderful distractions that modern societies offer their citizens do little to encourage something as tedious as an understanding of basic civics over something as gratuitously satisfying as the latest reality TV abortion.
Disillusionment is a less justifiable condition than living in a state of willful ignorance though it implies at least some consideration of a bigger picture; given the gravity of what is ultimately at stake, it is still a sin in its collective result. Many argue that no existing political party truly represents their interests, or that corruption is so inherent in power that it negates any perceived benefits associated with choosing one side over the other. What these people fail to take into account, is that by opting out they essentially give the controls to the same demographic groups that they resent in the first place, namely the previous generations who either screwed things up, or sat idly by and watched as things got worse. If you have a hard time grasping the urgency of the situation, take a moment to read up on the kind of heinous shit the conservatives have been trying so desperately to push through while you were asleep.
This isn’t to say that Canada is in terrible shape, far from it in fact when you consider the current state of the U.S.; (though that’s arguably like comparing a slightly passive aggressive aunt who leaves sticky notes on the fridge to a self destructive, paranoid schizophrenic in the middle of a grand mal seizure.) Part of what makes Canada’s system inherently better than the United States’ is its parliamentary form of government. Whereas down south voters follow a congressional system that essentially limits the options to two parties (unless you’re dumb enough to think of the Tea Party as differing significantly from the Republicans), as well as encouraging the disporportionately greater influence of private and corporate interests over those of the general public, Canada is home to three major parties as well as three smaller ones. You could argue that the latter parties play insignificant and limited roles as they are often excluded from televised debates, but at the end of the day the difference is hard to discount as insignificant. More importantly, Canada’s system allows for a wide variety of issues to be brought to the table, which again begs the question, why the fuck haven’t you identified with one?
The underlying significance of these statistics is still open for debate. However, it is clear that when it comes to answering the question of whose will the government of Canada actually represents, it is definitely not the voice of all for whom it should be speaking. Poor, stupid, apathetic and cynical is exactly what they want you kids to be, because it plays right into their interests to have you remain unorganized and passive little sheep; the question is, do you? Do you want a perpetual prison state where poverty is criminalized as tax cheats and high level fraudsters run free? Where the prime minister considers himself above the rule of law? Because that’s the end of the rainbow we’re currently on course for. Wake the fuck up Canada, you’re embarrassing me and you’re embarrassing yourself.
Stop being someone else's tool here:
