barb 2015Barb’s Note:

Upon finding the following article, “Voting is an Act of Violence,” and reading through it, I can’t help but realize that what the author says is true. This is not the way that we have been conditioned to think of our voting system, but if we stop for a moment to consider history and open our eyes to what is occurring right under our noses, it becomes quite evident that most of what we as a society have been brainwashed into thinking of as right, just, fair and honest is a complete lie. Actually, a web of lies manufactured to obtain our consent and approval of out and out thievery and support for forcible coercion to comply with government mandates that do not benefit us, but work to fill the coffers of the ones controlling the strings.

Anyone who understands Business 101 knows that corporations function from By-Laws, not from a Constitution with a Bill of Rights.  This is why we have unlawful Administrative Courts. Common Law cannot function and has no jurisdiction in the world of corporate law, and corporations are governed by the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which is a reflection of Maritime Law (which is why you see all of the flags in our courtrooms with gold trim on them… the American flag has no gold trim – even Dwight Eisenhower commented on this). (A Nation Beguiled)

“Voting” in a corporate-controlled state is merely casting your lot for the CEO of the corporation. You don’t actually get a say in the process nor the outcome, but are brainwashed into thinking you do by the mere act of voting. The Board Members will do what they want to encourage the growth of that corporation and are beholden to the shareholders. The shareholders are not we the people. The shareholders are the PTB. These are the uber-rich guys who hold all the cards and choose whom they like to do their will.

voting

Voting Is An Act Of Violence

Hans Sherrer  (1999)

Forejustice

Voting is the most violent act someone can commit in their lifetime.

This little noted anomaly about voting is directly related to the modern conception of the State as an entity deriving its grant of authority to act from the consent of the governed. The aura of legitimacy surrounding the government’s actions is enhanced by the perceived role of voting as an expression of the “people’s will.” Whether non-threatening or violent, the authority for each and every one of the government’s actions is presumed to flow from the consent of the people through the electoral process. School children are told this from their earliest years.

The idea the State derives its power to act from the consent of the people sounds romantic. Few people, however, are aware that by definition the State’s power is for the specific purpose of engaging in acts of violence. No grant of power is necessary for anyone, or any organization to act peacefully. This is no secret among scholars, and sociologist Max Weber’s definition of the State is considered one of the most authoritative:

“A state is a human institution that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. … The state is considered the sole source of the `right’ to use violence.” [1]

The legitimizing impact of voting on the government’s exercise of power intimately involves voters in the use of that power. Which means that non-voters tend to delegitimize the exercise of a government’s power as an expression of the “will of the people.” So if no one voted in an election or only a small percentage of people did, the government couldn’t profess to be empowered to act as an agent of the “people’s will.” Without the protective cover provided by voters, the government would have no pretense to act except as a law unto itself.

Consequently, the government’s actions and the voters who legitimize them are linked together. Thus at a minimum, voters are spiritually involved in every act engaged in by the government. Including all violent acts. This involvement in the government’s violence isn’t tempered by the nominal peacefulness of a person’s life apart from voting. By choosing to vote a person integrates the violence engaged in by the government as a part of their life. This is just as true of people that didn’t vote for a candidate who supports particular policies they may disagree with, as it is for those that did. It is going through the motion of voting that legitimizes the government to act in their name, not who or what they vote for.

This means that the violence perpetrated by any one person pales in scope or significance when compared to that which is authorized to be taken by the government in the name of those who vote. The combined ghoulish violence of every identifiable serial killer in American history can’t match the violence of even one of any number of violent actions taken by the government as the people’s representative. A prominent example of this is the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf war in 1991. These sanction prevented Iraq from rebuilding its destroyed sanitation, water, and electric power infrastructure that were specifically targeted by the U. S. military for destruction. Supported and enforced by the U. S., these sanctions are credited by UNICEF and other organizations with contributing to the gruesome deaths of an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 children a month for over 8-1/2 years. [2] All voters share in the government’s contribution to the unnecessary deaths of these children caused by disease and a reduced standard of living. So the over half-a-million deaths of innocent children in Iraq in the years after 1991’s Gulf war are on the blood stained hands of every voter in the U.S.

The same dynamic of voter involvement in government atrocities is true of the many hundreds of civilian deaths caused by the bombing of Yugoslavian cities in the spring and summer of 1999 that the United States participated in. This was a small scale recreation of the atomic bombing of the non-military cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Hundreds of thousands of innocent women, children and old people were killed from the initial bomb blasts and the long-term effects of radiation exposure. [3] Those bombings had been preceded by the U.S. military’s killing of many hundreds of thousands of non-combatants during the firebombings of Tokyo, Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin. All of those people were killed in the name of the voters that had elected the Roosevelt administration in 1944 by a landslide. Voting, like a missile fired at an unseen target many miles away, is a long-distance method of cleanly participating in the most horrific violence imaginable.

So declining to vote does much more than cause a statistical entry on the non-voting side of a ledger sheet. It is a positive way for a person to lower their level of moral responsibility for acts of violence engaged in by the government that they would never engage in personally, and that they don’t want to be committed in their name as a voter. Non-voting is a positive way for a person to publicly express the depth of their private belief in respecting the sanctity of life, and that violence is only justified in self-defense.

The social sphere in which most people live is notable for the level of peaceful cooperation that normally prevails in it. The majority of people strive to better their lives by working together with other people in the pursuit of their mutual self-interest. [4] This community spirit of non-violent cooperation supported by non-voting stands in sharp contrast to the societal violence endorsed by the act of voting.

 

ENDNOTES

[1] “Politics as a Vocation,” Max Weber, in “From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology,” edited by C. Wright Mills, Oxford University Press, NY, 1946, p. 78.

[2] See e.g., “Sanctions of Mass Destruction,” John Mueller and Karl Mueller, Foreign Affairs, May/June, 1999. vol. 78. no. 3, pp. 43-53; and, “U, S. Weapons of Mass Destruction Linked to Deaths of a Half-Million Children,” in “Censored 1999: The News That Didn’t Make the News – The Year’s Top 25 Censored Stories,” Peter Phillips and Project Censored, Seven Stories Press, NY, 1999, pp. 43-46.

[3] See e.g., “Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb,” Ronald Takaki, Little Brown & Company. Boston, 1995; and, “Hiroshima in. America: A Half Century of Denial,” Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell, Avon, NY, 1996.

[4] See e.g., “The Evolution of Cooperation,” Robert Axelrod, Basic Books, New York, 1984; “Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity,” John H. Holland, Perseus Press, 1996; and, “Reputation: Studies in the Voluntary Elicitation of Good Conduct,” edited by Daniel B. Klein, University of Michigan Press, 1997.

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2 Responses to “Voting Is An Act Of Violence”

  1. Mauro Dutra says:

    Amazing how eloquently you’ve expressed what I think about our democratic system and our form on government. As a Brazilian national I would like to use Brazil as a perfect, clearly noticeable example of the damage voters can cause to its society through the democratic process. Of course nothing compares to the horrors of war as you cited. But poverty induced by corruption also brings death, violence and suffering to all nations. Obviously I deeply agree with your evaluation of the authenticity of our democracy and its governmental system. I wish these would had been my words. Particularly Hans Sherrer’s words –

    Yet, I must say by offering no plausible alternative to current political state of affairs, it sounds you are telling your readers simply not to vote. Yes, in today’s world we are living an illusion, or better, an utopic delusion of democracy. Yes, alike our Founding Fathers 240 years ago, we need to redefine our form of government, a revolution of principals. We need a new generation of our best and brightest to lead us to this better democratic government. Perhaps millennia from now humans will evolve so no government is necessary – “No grand power necessary to act peacefully.” But until then, I believe a government is needed and it is best if democratic. I do not have myself the alternative to our failed political system, but I think if you writing so eloquently about it, you could call your reader to action – perhaps voting the right representatives in place?!

    – Everyone knows this quote by Edmund Burke; yet most us fail to practice it.

    I also would like to note that while I was thinking about this post, I thought of the term “utopic delusion”, so I google it and found this title “ title=”The Great Utopian Delusion>”>” by Paul Cleveland. The book’s description has interested me, so I am ordering it. I guess if I am to follow my own advice and act; the first step would be to educate myself.

  2. Abe says:

    You made some excellent comments at the top Barb!! This was an excellent and hard hitting article.
    Several of us were kicked out of our county convention last Sat. We’ll have a new state Sen. that read about 8 science papers I’d copied for him to read. Including the last 4 by Samsel & Seneff, Seralini’s republished paper and his proof of fraud in the testing system (his was more detailed then Anthony’s), Also the pig study Carmen did at Vlieger’s farm in IA, and the one I helped with Nancy. He gets it!!

    In the election of 2012 I seen at the RNC the Neo Cons were pulling crap that they’re doing in the total open now. They had a lot of thugs pounding on Ron Paul supporters at the precinct and county levels to. I think Cleveland will find out what Chicago was like in 68!