Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A Message to Young People

If you're not like totally into politics? I mean, if you can't like name both the Vice-Presidential candidates, or if you can't name even the Presidential candidates, or if you're uncertain as to what I'm talking about here, don't worry about it. It's totally cool. Only geeks keep track of that stuff anyway. But here's the really cool part: you should not worry about it. Forget about it, man. Play video games and watch TV. And when the voting day comes -- I won't bother you with the date, because it's better you remain vague about it -- just stay in bed. Don't worry about voting. It's cool. You can leave that to other people. Who cares?

Don't listen to those self-righteous poseurs who tell you that you have a responsibility to vote. You don't have to vote if you don't want to. It's called freedom. And forget that stuff about how you won't have the right to speak out for the next two years if you don't vote today. You can say whatever you want, but mostly you have better things to talk about anyway, so blow off those idiots.

Don't let any of those clowns make you feel guilty for not voting. The opposite of what they say is true: if you don't vote, you are serving your country. You are helping America if you don't vote, because only informed citizens should vote. You don't want all that hassle of learning about the candidates and the issues. There's nothing wrong with that. Really. Just stay home, put on some tunes and fire up the bong. Fuck voting.

This has been a public service announcement.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Poseur" - What does that mean, dude? That's a French word, not an English word, right... you know what I mean... dude?

Myrhaf said...

Jeez, you're right -- I should not have used that word.

Anonymous said...

I'm young and I want to vote, but for the abolition of democratic rule over individual rights.

Where do I check for that option?

Myrhaf said...

If you live to be 100, you'll never see that option on the ballot.

I hope you live long enough to see the revival of freedom in America.

Anonymous said...

So do I, since I hope to move there some day. When that day comes, I'd like my for exodus from Sweden to be meaningful.

Anonymous said...

"Don't listen to those self-righteous poseurs who tell you that you have a responsibility to vote. You don't have to vote if you don't want to. It's called freedom. And forget that stuff about how you won't have the right to speak out for the next two years if you don't vote today."

I actually agree with this logic. If this were a young stoner's sole grounds for abstention in this election, then more power to him. I guess where I differ from the non-voting stoner is that we do have one responsibility: to respect each others individual rights, and, as a corollary of this, to pay attention to politics enough, and fight when necessary, to stop the politicos from destroying these rights. In this regard, free speech and the power of the pen are more powerful and much more important than voting.


I’m not voting in this election -- at least not for the two collectivism-worshipers we have as presidential candidates -- and for the next two years I will continue to speak out about how terrible Obama or McCain is and how we need to find and support candidates who uphold individual rights. Well, I’ll be able to do this, so long as either Obama or McCain don’t restrict my freedom of speech, since both seem to have a love affair with censorship.

~ Joseph Kellard

Myrhaf said...

Ethically, it's preferable not to do drugs and to be an informed voter. This post is more bitter satire than I usually do. I'm reacting to those ridiculous ads urging young people to vote. They don't care how uninformed people are, they just want everyone voting.