--- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> How much importance, in practical terms, is this
> debate. The domain is
> fairly small: it consists of leftists for whom
> voting or not voting for
> the DP is a matter of conscious choice. That is a
> rather small number.
> Their decision never has and never will make a
> difference in the outcome
> of an election. Suppose each of them were to
> 'convert' at least one
> additional person to their view. They still won't
> make a difference. In
> other words, we are in the realm of whimsey, not
> politics, of an
> individual choice for which the only standard would
> be, "Which way is
> more fun."
This is a rather heartless view, because it snuffs out individual passion and leads to defeatism among those who actually might make a difference. Rosa Parks was whimsical by these standards. Ramsey Clark has had a whimsical career. Socrates and Thoreau were artists of whimsy. The Vietnamese buddhist monk who set himself afire was whimsical too. Whimsical in this sense means acting outside the normal political institutions and social conventions, symbolically rejecting them. Sometimes those kinds of action have an impact.
BobW
>
> Most of the people on this list have more fun voting
> for the DP. Fine. I
> believe in fun, even for Reds. I think I have more
> fun not voting.
> That's my whimsey. No political impact. As Michael
> says, it's a null
> choice. But so, actually, is the decision to vote.
> Both null choices.
> Flip a coin. It doesn't matter.
>
> Carrol
>
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