To explain the title of this blog, I'm actually not going to talk about voting at all. Instead, I will use two hypothetical scenarios. As you read them though, the parallels to voting here in the United States should be pretty obvious. If they're not, no amount of words in a blog would probably get through to you.
SCENARIO 1
Imagine you have this black box with three buttons on the top; a red button, a blue button, and a white button. In order to improve your life, you are encouraged to choose one of the buttons and press it. You do. Nothing happens though. Your life doesn't get any better. Things just kind of stay the same for you. You have a random mix of good days and bad days, successes and failures, pleasant surprises and bitter disappointments. You think back to the black box with the three buttons and how you were told how very important it was to press a button. Some told you pressing the red button was the best option and would provide greatest improvement to your life. Others said the very same thing about two other buttons. It was hard for you to choose because you believed that this box, along with the selection of the correct button would, in fact, improve your life. Some even cautioned you against choosing the wrong button as it would adversely affect everyone else's life regardless of what color button they chose and pressed. It was a lot of pressure for you.
It turns out that choosing and pressing one of the buttons on this black box becomes a yearly thing that you are strongly encouraged to do. Ugh. More pressure! You even think about no longer participating in this black box button pressing but a lot of people admonished you for this line of thinking. They insist it's your duty to press a button on this black box whenever you're invited to because the quality of everyone else's life depended on you making a decision and regularly participating in pressing a button along with everyone else. If you opt not to press a button, it would be obvious to everyone that you're just not a team player and you don't care enough about the quality of life of those around you!
Still, after years and years of participating in this button pressing, you're not at all convinced it's doing any good. So you do some research on this black box. There are schematics online that list the inner workings of this thing and what's supposed to happen when a button is pressed. From everything you read, it certainly sounds legit, but then you find other reports and articles online casting doubt on how effective and functional this black box really is. Lots of people complain that the black box is woefully outdated and that improvements and enhancements are desperately needed. Others claim the black box has been hacked by evildoers working for groups that advocate pressing a specific color button. Wow. The more you research, the more you think this black box isn't all it's cracked up to be. At the very least, it's broken or out of date. It may not even function at all. At the very worst it's being controlled and manipulated by nefarious forces. So after years of pressing a button on this black box and witnessing nothing happen or change significantly in your life, and after all your research on this black box, you come to the only conclusion that seems logical to you; you're gonna stop pressing the button on this black box until the makers of this device put some time, effort, and money into fixing or upgrading it and provide you with verifiable evidence that it works. You are immediately and mercilessly excoriated by most of your family and friends for your decision.
SCENARIO 2
This guy knocks on your door and he's selling magazines. You're not really interested in subscribing to any magazines but before you can close the door on this guy, he shows you his sales sheet and it looks like damn near everyone else in your entire neighborhood subscribed to a magazine. The guy explains why you need to also subscribe. Your future and your family's future depend on you subscribing! Subscribing will improve your neighborhood too! He tells you, generally, it doesn't matter which magazine you subscribe to, but he shows you the two most popular ones and kind of hints that you'd be wasting your money on any of the other magazines. These two popular ones are powerful and can change your life! He's certainly got your attention now so you take a look at the magazines that he's offering. Neither of the two popular ones interest you. They seem awful, boring, and just not something you want. You decide there's no way you're subscribing to either of those. You ask him for some time to review the other magazine subscription options and tell him you'll get back to him. Later that day, you start talking to some of your neighbors who have subscribed. All of them have chosen between the two most popular ones and try in earnest to convince you why you should also be subscribing to the same magazine they did. Again, you find both of these top two choices awful. You politely, but plainly, tell your neighbors that these two most popular choices are awful in your view and, although you're fine with them subscribing (because, hey, it's a free country) there's no way you would ever subscribe. You tell them you're reviewing your other subscription options, some of which you actually found interesting and worthwhile. Most of your neighbors laugh at your for this. They tell you that it's an utterly stupid idea, and a total waste of your money, to subscribe to any magazine other than the two most popular. In fact, they more-than-insinuate that you will, in fact, be directly responsible for bringing down property values in the neighborhood if you don't subscribe to one of the two popular magazines and, instead, go with a third option. This all seems extremely crazy to you. So much so, that you call up the magazine salesman and inform him you've decided not to subscribe to any of the magazines he's offering!
Apparently, this salesman has some mighty loose lips. Soon all your neighbors find out from him that you declined to subscribe to any magazine! An angry mob of neighbors gathers outside of your house. Collectively they tell you how ashamed you should be for not participating in the neighborhood's magazine subscription drive. It was bad enough when you said you might go with one of the other less-popular magazines, but now that you're not going to subscribe to any, they question whether you even belong in this neighborhood anymore. Sure, you own your house and pay your taxes and maintain your yard, but if you're not participating in a magazine subscription, you're probably not a good neighbor. Furthermore, you shouldn't expect to be able to participate in any community events if you don't have a magazine subscription and you have absolutely no right to ever complain about anything in the neighborhood.
Enough said.
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