by the subway philosopher™
Back in the good ol’ days, around 2016 when the debate over legalized marijuana was raging, I found myself briefly and temporarily (thank god for small mercies) trapped by stick-wielding bureaucrats on the west coast of Canada, watching with considerable disinterest as a certain TV newscast, hosted by this handmaid of Sauron dork, aired the results of a poll they’d conducted: Who, they asked, should be responsible for regulating legal marijuana? Three choices were offered: federal government, provincial government, or municipal government. Needless to say, respondents overwhelmingly chose government (100%, in fact – surprise, surprise!). None involved in this idiocy appeared to be embarrassed by their stupidity, or even vaguely aware of it.
– Unemployed gâteau-gobbling French peasants.
Although the poll offered three ‘choices,’ in effect the available options merely presented trivial variations on a single theme – no legitimate alternatives were considered outside of this false trichotomy, to coin a phrase. The notion that people should or even could make their own decisions about the demon weed was entirely absent from the debate. Government ‘regulation’ was the lone choice.
Democracy in general suffers from a similar flaw of artificially-constrained options; even the pseudo-egalitarian concept (yet more stupidity, this time courtesy jobless cake-eating French peasants) of bowing to the will of the majority has been co-opted and corrupted by our rulers. Keep in mind Black’s Rule 1 of government: All government is evil.
For a pertinent example, consider the recent US presidential election (assume, if you don’t mind, that the numbers are as reported): Biden won with 81 million votes, out of an adult population of roughly 255m persons. By no stretch of the imagination does this constitute a majority, even when applying Common Core math. Roughly 175m adult Americans, a massive majority, are NOT represented in the hallowed halls of federal executive power. According to the CFR, voter turnout as a percentage of eligible voters was the highest since 1900, however even this masks the reality, since considerably fewer than 255m Americans were ‘eligible.’
– The majority of adults in any democracy are unrepresented. That’s not democracy.
The fact is that a substantial portion of the US electorate either does not vote or, for a variety of reasons, is ineligible to participate in democracy’s most sacred ritual. These folks are lumped in with the losers – all are technically unrepresented, despite being the legitimate majority. Can you say ‘cognitive dissonance?’ Virtually every ‘democratic’ election in every country in the world, from local dogcatcher on up to the highest offices, suffers from similar flaws.
Australia’s joyless feminist bureaucrats and politicians, undaunted by mere notions of human rights and freedom, ‘solved’ the problem in breathtakingly totalitarian fashion – they simply force everyone to vote. Mao would be proud. The Aussies I’m acquainted with don’t seem to have a problem with this, oddly enough – perhaps they’ve never quite escaped their convict mentality, or perhaps they’ve got too many sheep kangaroos down there and are a smidge confused.
Unfortunately, the issue of meaningful choice hasn’t gone away. We can choose who will rule us, to a very modest degree, but we can never choose not to be ruled. Post-modern democracy, the purported zenith of political thought and personal freedom, is in fact just another mechanism binding citizens to the service of the state.
– A daring leap into the unknown unknown.
Let’s take a daring leap into the unknown unknown, and imagine that the actual preference of the 95 million or so adult Americans who didn’t vote was ‘none of the above’ and was counted as such. What would the election results look like then? The offices of the presidency and vice-presidency would currently be vacant by virtue of ‘biggest vote-getter wins,’ in this case ‘none of the above.’ And while that might still not reflect a true majority, it would certainly come closer to accurately representing Americans than the present reality.
– Arkansas hillbillies would shut down their stills and stop messing around with kin.
Should such an outcome actually come to pass, wild celebrations would no doubt erupt spontaneously across the land, drawing Americans together in ways no politician could ever dream of. BLM activists would lay down their bricks and use them to build housing for victims. Trumpers would hug Hillary, farmers would offer their daughters to Bill. Obama would embrace his white side. All the soldiers overseas would throw their weapons into the nearest ocean and demand immediate transportation home. Women would stop suing men and stealing their children, houses and bank accounts. Portland would slide conveniently into the sea, as it should. The Pentagon would close, permanently. Blacks would intermarry with Jews and Hispanics at record levels. The New York Times would fire all its juvenile activists and hire a (one) real journalist to replace them. Arkansas hillbillies would shut down their stills and stop messing around with kin. The Federal Reserve would go on strike and force a return to the gold standard. The Boomers would gracefully slip off to the Great Hereafter en masse. Goldman Sachs would donate all of its profits to Main Street in perpetuity. Repairs to the George Washington Bridge would be completed. Elon Musk, Oprah, and the British Royal Family would move to Mars and (with any luck) stay there. God in his infinite grace would look down from the heavens and smile, lions would lie down with lambs, the people would rejoice, and all the world would be filled with peace and love.
Or maybe not.
While it is possibly not the best idea ever to leave the highest offices in the land unpopulated and the nation unrepresented amongst the political glitterati of the world, it might not be that terrible either. It does however represent a legitimate choice, something no democracy in existence currently manages. But it’s at the local and state levels that this idea holds the greatest potential for restraining the government beast.
How would it work? With ‘none of the above’ ascribed to non-voters and on the ballot itself, run-off voting in most jurisdictions would, I suspect, quickly lead to a single choice achieving a true majority. If that majority choice happened to be ‘none of the above,’ the office must be left vacant. Laws will not be passed, taxes will not be increased, bureaucracies will not be funded, government workers will lose their jobs and fat pensions. Real democracy, real choice. And if people don’t like the outcome, well, they can always get out and vote, next time.
Let’s give it a shot, what do you say?
Just an aside, but did you know the Lion did not lay down with the Lamb? The wolf did.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-Mandela-Effect-and-when-did-the-Bible-verse-%E2%80%9CThe-lion-shall-lie-down-with-the-lamb%E2%80%9D-change-to-%E2%80%9CThe-wolf-shall-lie-down-with-the-lamb%E2%80%9D-I-remember-the-lion-as-do-many-others
Yup. The bible is clear on the matter. But most know it as lions, so went with the common perception.
By the way, I knew you were joking when I saw this:
My husband’s family comes from Bari, Italy, on the forward ankle of the boot.
Now, having made three separate comments somewhat related to topic, I suppose an attempt to explain my reactions to the points you made about President Nobody.
Government, government or more government. None of the above should indeed be a valid choice and a valid outcome. The gimmee my stimmy voters will always gobble the cake, happily.
In a political science class longagoandfaraway, I was assigned to read The Tyranny of the Majority by Lani Guinier.
How did we get to here where there really is Tyranny.
https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1274&context=ylpr
“– A daring leap into the unknown unknown.”
After reading your proposition, I remembered a reference to Soviet public officials continuing to work even after the collapse. Eventually, they had their own little network, mafia-like. The absence of power in government creates a vacuum.
Which brings us to the Arkansas hillbilly joke. I grew up 25 miles from Arkansas. You watch yer mouth.
No doubt in my mind that Arkansas folk are the salt of the earth. Just riffing off the stereotypes perpetuated by cloud people.
Amusing idea. Let’s get back to earthly reality. We are in the mess we are in because our country contains an astonishing amount of human dross, worthless, shiftless, low IQ human garbage, cleverly led around by the nose by a sinister and cynical “Elite”. Making allowances for the honorable exceptions that always exist, let us examine the facts. The most obvious problem is the black minority, incapable, in general, of performing anything but menial functions in a modern society, or even a pre-modern society. They were brought here for one reason: Cheap stoop labor. Unfortunately, they reproduce. Our crime rate would be lower and average IQ would be and higher without them. Worse, their intense racial consciousness makes them a compact and easily controlled voting bloc. It would be tedious to enter into any argument about this. I merely point to our once great cities, which they have utterly destroyed, and our electoral system, which they have utterly corrupted, and our judicial system, which lies in ruins. Jefferson was right. We simply can’t live together.
Our self-described “Elite” lacks every single attribute of a true elite except, in some cases, money. The primary identifying characteristic of the Coastal “Elites” is their preposterous self-esteem and granite-like belief in their own moral and intellectual superiority. I can speak with some authority on this as I spent almost 30 years in one of the bastions of the Establishment. I had an opportunity to study these nebbishes at close range. I was not impressed. I found both the East and West Coast specimens to be shallow, self-absorbed, remarkably ignorant regarding the world and basic historical knowledge, marginally competent (if at all), lazy, and cowardly to a degree that would be beyond belief had I not seen it with my own eyes. They very thought of standing away from the herd transformed these credentialed turds into shivering masses of flesh. To speak back to “authority” (usually some dunce very similar to themselves) caused them to shit their pants. On the other hand, if you pointed out – politely – that they didn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground they reacted like scalded cats. I well remember how amazed I was to find out that my Ivy League colleagues were lacking in even the most rudimentary understanding of world history and, more to the point, of the specific problems we were involved in. Case in point. When discussing counter-terrorism operations with a very senior intelligence official in charge of Latin America I mentioned in passing the role the Cuban intelligence services have played in fomenting terrorism and strife in Latin America – something known to every person in that region – he stopped me and demanded to know how I had come to that “conclusion”. I was left literally speechless. This same idiot was instrumental in promoting a raft of morons to senior ranks. Of course, our intelligence services are in a shambles thanks to these people.
They are so insecure it makes your skin crawl. One of them wrote a book about his (grossly exaggerated) role in the so-called “War on Terrorism”, or GWOT (Global War on Terrorism), as I actually heard some mouth-breathing dolt refer to the post-9/11 operations against Islamic extremists. This tubby clown went on and on about his New England roots and, just in case we did not get the point, mentioned his Harvard degree a dozen times. As a Southerner I am totally indifferent to the whole New England, Ivy League shtick. Means nothing to me one way or the other. I know what it means to them, though. They are so desperate to separate themselves from the smelly masses they grasp at anything to “prove” their right to be included in the elect of God. In severe cases, they even wore bow ties to work (A hint: Unless your name is Mike Tyson or John Wayne, do not wear a bow tie; it is legal in Florida to strangle bow tie wearers.).
Yes, the blacks and other marginal minorities, led by the “Elite”, have done much damage, but the very worst criminals are ordinary, middle class white people who vote for people like Biden. I was just reading an article about “Biden voters” who are just overjoyed that he is in the White House. Once such is Robin Westcott, of Erie, Pennsylvania. She is just so delighted. The photograph is of a typical middle-aged housewife type. She is a retired college admissions official. She does not have a brain in her head.
She and the other mindless cretins in Erie gave the county to Biden. No, it wasn’t the blacks or Harvard grads. White people, normal, everyday folks, are so stupid, so completely lacking in common sense, an understanding of where we stand as a country, and the mortal danger the Democrats have put us in, that they think old Lunchbox Joe is an all right guy.
I am reminded of the British World War I poem about two privates chatting about what a fine old duffer their commanding general was, the upshot being both of them would soon be dead thanks to the blunders of that fine old duffer.
People like Robin Westcott listen to what people like Jim Acosta, Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Joyce Behar and the rest say and actually believe it. The fact that we are being overrun with paupers from Guatemala, crime is out of control, our legal system has collapsed, and people just like her will soon be the targets of the anti-white tidal wave, never pierces their reptilian brains. When China and Russia decide to pull the rug out from under us, remember this stupid woman and her friends. They are the most dangerous enemy.
Low information voters are the problem. You can see how stupid people are by just watching how people drive.
True; too many are too lazy and/or stupid to become educated or informed, but they do vote based on what the tellyvision says. No solution until it comes to a head and crashes . P.S. Idaho has terrible weather; you wouldn’t like it here. We don’t wear masks and we carry gunz.
I’d like to skim the book on SWOT you mention. Name and author, please?
I was thinking about what it would be like without any cops and I would be ok with it. For the most part, everyone is very polite where I live. Open carry kind of helps with this. I associate cops and the Gov. with causing me problems and costing me money.
I guess national defense would be the only thing that would need some thinking on.
Florida and most Red States are still Ok so I prefer Secession over Anarchy (Chaos) which the Communist and Nazis desire for obvious political reasons, and which this proposal would result in. However, I do choose Anarchy over continuing this illegal Communist Dictatorship.