Voting, Economy
So I voted today. I'm not entirely sure why. I think part of it was peer pressure, and not wanting to be one of 'those people' who don't vote.
On the other hand, I haven't come across reasons convincing enough for me not to vote. I hate the 'lesser of two evils' idea, but I can't see a way past it, and anyway, voting doesn't prevent me from doing other meaningful activity, like rewilding and learning useful post-collapse skills.
I'm sympathetic to the arguments that say, 'Ultimately, no matter who you vote for, the government is not going to change, so voting is relatively meaningless as an anarchist.' I'm also sympathetic to the fact that, in voting, you participate in your own subjugation. Ran has an essay where he recounts a scene in 'Good Will Hunting:' Matt Damon's character tells Robin Williams' that his father used to beat him, but give him a choice with what implement, either a belt, a stick or a wrench. He always chose the wrench, "Because fuck him." The point is, it was always clear to Will that this was an evil, dominating relationship, and he never deluded himself into thinking otherwise. He also never participated in his own subjugation by electing the implement of lesser evil. I'm also sympathetic to not voting as a statement of withdrawal and refusal of this sham system wherein people have almost no control over the elements of their life, and the vast array of options potentially open to them is typically between two candidates who agree on far more than they disagree about, and who you didn't choose to begin with. Bob Black talks about this, and notes the decline in voting by the eligible population, even by those most recently enfranchised.
All of that I'm sympathetic to, but I still voted. Peer pressure, I guess.
Also- Ran foresees an economic bust soon. I looked into it a bit- countries who typically produced goods for the US are becoming less reliant on US dollars, some countries are beginning to buy petrol barrels in Euros or other non-dollar currencies, the housing bubble is starting to bust, meaning the primary investment considered a 'sure thing,' real estate, is collapsing, and people won't be able to borrow against the mortgages since their 'property' no longer be so valuable. The price of petrol will probably rise soon too to account for the continually diminishing reserves, making it harder and and harder for people to get to the jobs they hate just so they can keep paying off debts, causing a drop in 'productivity' and less money being generated. Soon after that will be inflation probably, and perhaps on a massive scale. Maybe the drop in productivity, as an upside, means less of the world will be converted from the living to the dead. But maybe not- I don't understand economics all that well.
I thought about this a lot. It's pretty scary, and I can understand why people get so worked up over jobs and job security, even if they mostly would rather be doing other things. So many of us, and especially in NY, are so dependent on others for our livelihood. Food and water and medicine, obviously, but also laundering clothes, or fixing things. A shitty economy makes a lot of that tenuous. What's going to happen when bread is $100 a loaf. That's cool for my school loans, cuz $7k becomes 700 loaves of bread, and shit, I could do that now if I needed to with the little savings I have. But income's not going to go up all that much, probably. I could start riding my bike more exclusively once unlimited transit cards are a few hundred bucks a month, not $76, and I could launder clothes at home, probably, and scavenge more foods, and buy more bulk products and never eat out. And rent's tied down for a couple of years, so that's fixed, but not everyone's in such a decent predicament.
Anyway, it all got me scared, and I really worry that in the future once collapse accelerates, debt may be an imprisonable offense as Casemeau expressed concern about. That may be one strategy to for centralized power to maintain its grip, and/or laws may be enacted making it even more difficult to live off the grid. Maybe that's where being an outlaw land squatter like Ted foresees and plans for will come into play.
I may follow suit with Ran and spend some money on goods now in case that money becomes effectively worthless if inflation really does take off.
Also- anyone reading this interested in primitive skills, check out this page. Beer bottles, sticks and discarded wire hangers I can foresee as being in abundance after collapse.
On the other hand, I haven't come across reasons convincing enough for me not to vote. I hate the 'lesser of two evils' idea, but I can't see a way past it, and anyway, voting doesn't prevent me from doing other meaningful activity, like rewilding and learning useful post-collapse skills.
I'm sympathetic to the arguments that say, 'Ultimately, no matter who you vote for, the government is not going to change, so voting is relatively meaningless as an anarchist.' I'm also sympathetic to the fact that, in voting, you participate in your own subjugation. Ran has an essay where he recounts a scene in 'Good Will Hunting:' Matt Damon's character tells Robin Williams' that his father used to beat him, but give him a choice with what implement, either a belt, a stick or a wrench. He always chose the wrench, "Because fuck him." The point is, it was always clear to Will that this was an evil, dominating relationship, and he never deluded himself into thinking otherwise. He also never participated in his own subjugation by electing the implement of lesser evil. I'm also sympathetic to not voting as a statement of withdrawal and refusal of this sham system wherein people have almost no control over the elements of their life, and the vast array of options potentially open to them is typically between two candidates who agree on far more than they disagree about, and who you didn't choose to begin with. Bob Black talks about this, and notes the decline in voting by the eligible population, even by those most recently enfranchised.
All of that I'm sympathetic to, but I still voted. Peer pressure, I guess.
Also- Ran foresees an economic bust soon. I looked into it a bit- countries who typically produced goods for the US are becoming less reliant on US dollars, some countries are beginning to buy petrol barrels in Euros or other non-dollar currencies, the housing bubble is starting to bust, meaning the primary investment considered a 'sure thing,' real estate, is collapsing, and people won't be able to borrow against the mortgages since their 'property' no longer be so valuable. The price of petrol will probably rise soon too to account for the continually diminishing reserves, making it harder and and harder for people to get to the jobs they hate just so they can keep paying off debts, causing a drop in 'productivity' and less money being generated. Soon after that will be inflation probably, and perhaps on a massive scale. Maybe the drop in productivity, as an upside, means less of the world will be converted from the living to the dead. But maybe not- I don't understand economics all that well.
I thought about this a lot. It's pretty scary, and I can understand why people get so worked up over jobs and job security, even if they mostly would rather be doing other things. So many of us, and especially in NY, are so dependent on others for our livelihood. Food and water and medicine, obviously, but also laundering clothes, or fixing things. A shitty economy makes a lot of that tenuous. What's going to happen when bread is $100 a loaf. That's cool for my school loans, cuz $7k becomes 700 loaves of bread, and shit, I could do that now if I needed to with the little savings I have. But income's not going to go up all that much, probably. I could start riding my bike more exclusively once unlimited transit cards are a few hundred bucks a month, not $76, and I could launder clothes at home, probably, and scavenge more foods, and buy more bulk products and never eat out. And rent's tied down for a couple of years, so that's fixed, but not everyone's in such a decent predicament.
Anyway, it all got me scared, and I really worry that in the future once collapse accelerates, debt may be an imprisonable offense as Casemeau expressed concern about. That may be one strategy to for centralized power to maintain its grip, and/or laws may be enacted making it even more difficult to live off the grid. Maybe that's where being an outlaw land squatter like Ted foresees and plans for will come into play.
I may follow suit with Ran and spend some money on goods now in case that money becomes effectively worthless if inflation really does take off.
Also- anyone reading this interested in primitive skills, check out this page. Beer bottles, sticks and discarded wire hangers I can foresee as being in abundance after collapse.
posted by Archangel at 8:27 PM
2 Comments:
I don't vote, for all the reasons you're sympathetic to. Just the thought of it is incredibly disempowering to me. Not to mention that I resonate with much anarcho-primitivist literature that is against mass society.
I don't have a problem with you voting, but if you're interested I do have something to say on the argument of choosing the "lesser of two evils"
"The lesser of two evils" argument is in my view baseless, as it is based around a conception of evil that I do not share. To me good/evil is a false dichotomy and is a function of the mind/body split so prevalent in civilization. It's interesting to see Jensen thoroughly critiquing Descartes while he (from my perspective) continually invokes Cartesian dualism. Anyway, for me it's impossible to determine one way or another what is "good" and what is "evil", and thus to determine whether something or someone is "more evil" or "less evil" is equally impossible. Who knows how things will play out? For me, it's an open question... so when someone "answers" this by choosing a party they don't support on the basis of an assumption of how things will play out, it strikes me as rather... desperate. Disempowered. Something. I don't mean to condemn or judge anyone by this, (despair is an entirely appropriate response to a desperate situation) that's just how it comes across to me.
The fear that comes up based on the future projection of collapse/economic depression/death/sickness/whatever also makes me curious. I'm interested in converting all of my money to tangible resources too, but it's not based out of fear. Fear is a pretty reactionary, "unsustainable" motivator. People motivated by fear tend to get burned out fairly quick. What motivates me is the dream of a personal relationship with all that gives me life, and money is about as impersonal and dead as you can get.
Thanks for posting that bit from Good Will Hunting. It brought tears to my eyes. It's been a long time since I've seen that movie, I need to see it again. Which of Ran's essays was that in?
- Devin
Devin,
I feel you about wanting to have a relationship with those who give me life. My friend talks about the importance of a self-theory for anarchists. That is, how your politics must be grounded in something that's real and tangible to you, and not something you espouse because of obligation or guilt. So when people ask why he wants to see the end of the state, he says because he doesn't like it and what it's done to him. Likewise, why do I want to see the end of civilization? not because it's 'unsustainable,' (thought it is, however we define it), but because it's horrifying to me how much my home and my relations are being ground up before my eyes. It's also frustrating in the strictest sense that I have almost no means of engaging those same relations precisely because of civilization. That's, at base, why I want it gone. I want that vision, and that motivates me.
Good Will Hunting's great. I really like Matt Damon.
And the Ran essay was the one on voting, here: http://ranprieur.com/essays/electpsy.html
cool!
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