[lbo-talk] Anarchism, was Cuba

[John Thornton]

Chuck wrote:
> What boggles my mind is that these voting anarchists would advocate 
> participating in something that: 1) is completely against their 
> interests; 2) supports the statist system; and 3) is opposed by most 
> non-anarchists. Most Americans don't vote. They clearly reject the 
> current political system and see through it. Approval rankings for the 
> U.S. Congress are at all time lows. It's even gotten to the point where 
> LIBERALS, of all people, are cynical about the political system. (See 
> Doug's comments about his cruise discussions).
>   

Participation in modern life means you participate in things every day 
that you do not support.
Do you never eat food grown, transported, sold, etc. by profit making 
capitalists firms?
Do you use roads built with tax funds raised by the state?
How do you avoid actively participating, in thousands of way every day, 
in the structures that are against ones own interests?
Yet one voluntary collective action like voting sends anarchists over 
the edge.

> Yet, some anarchists see something of value in voting?
>
> Or look at the system in another way. What kind of significant social 
> change has been achieved through voting in the past 30, 50 years?
>   

Do you really want a list of improvements in peoples everyday lives 
brought about through parliamentary procedures?
It's pretty long.

> I'm just astounded that a bright guy like B. would argue that through 
> voting, we can "stave off the worst of the lot of ruling bastards."
> Come on, B.! Do you really think it would make a difference if the 
> Democrats were in power instead of the Republicans? Sure, Bush may be 
> the worse case scenario, but let's remember all of the things that 
> Clinton did to make Bush II possible.
>
> And which major party cares if anarchists (or leftists) for that matter, 
> vote?
>
> Chuck

How many times is this nonsense about there being no difference between 
the Dems and the Repugs going to be trotted out and then followed up 
with some caveat.
Your refusal to see that even incremental differences mean real 
differences for millions of people is scary. It's like a religious 
fundamentalists who keeps clinging to his faith no matter how many holes 
you poke in it.

John Thornton