Election day

[unixronin]

When next you all hear from me, I shall have voted.  I shall not vote based on parties.  I shall vote based on issues, and upon candidates, their integrity, their records; what they believe in, and what they stand for.  I will not be voting for anyone who can come up with nothing better to say for themselves than "Well, my opponent sucks."

What about you?  Will you vote today?  If not, why not?

The United States is a constitutional republic, a representative democracy.  Our government is our responsibility.  If you, as a citizen, won't vote, you are failing in your duty and responsibility as a citizen.  I don't even care all that much if you vote against everything I stand for and believe in, so long as you vote, and vote honestly what you believe in, not just what someone with a sharp suit and a whole lot of money told you you should.  It doesn't matter who's wearing the suit; you're casting your vote, not theirs.  Let them vote how they want.

So go out today, and cast YOUR vote.  Because it's your country.

Comments

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Suffering for a cause in the past is no evidence of either the worthiness of the cause then, nor its applicability to the present. If you want to make bold claims of "voting is my right, bought in blood, and I will exercise it," feel free — but I'm not going to take your reasoning seriously.

People also suffered in the past to prove their devotion to gods long forgotten to humanity. Are we somehow betraying their imprisonment, abuse and torture if we fail to share in their beliefs?

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

That's fine. You don't need to take my reasoning, it's mine. As for being bought with blood, I'm sure my great-aunt would sigh pat us both on the head and tell us to play nice.
As for you last question, it's un-answerable, since it depends on your religion.

Enjoy your day.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

More to the point, it's not reasoning.

If you want to argue against my claim that voting is irrelevant, you need to engage the idea you're setting yourself up in opposition to. That means logic, reasoning, and forswearing of dogma and cant.

Instead, you're expressing your wishes, hopes and beliefs, and justifying them with emotional appeals. While your position may in fact be true and I may be wrong, arguing from emotion and appeal to the past is not engagement.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I heard it said once that it's better to be wrong for the right reasons, than right for the wrong reasons.

Not sure who it was who said it.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

I'm solidly behind that one.

Lines of reasoning can be scrutinized, argued against; axioms can be shown to be unfounded. Reasoning is impersonal. I am not my lines of argument. I have no self–worth invested in a logical conclusion. If something happens to topple it, I spend a few days dazed and researching, then come up with something better. That's the mathematical process in a nutshell. It's impersonal and highly efficient.

Emotions are harder to challenge, more difficult to argue against. We human beings feel the things we feel, and there's no guarantee our feelings will be connected to reality.

I would much rather be wrong based on logic than right based on emotion.

I reserve emotion for my friends and family. My countrymen get my logic, and my enemies get my coldest, clearest-eyed thinking.

[bbullock.livejournal.com]

I want to meet the person who makes every decision in life, in every instant, based on logic.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

There used to be one, but he got an emotion chip installed in ..... season 4? Or was it in one of the movies?

[bbullock.livejournal.com]

I think a movie. One of the really, really awful movies.
But that's just an emotional response on my part.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

It's an unrealistic goal. However, striving to follow reason as much as possible is, I believe, worthwhile. I'm not blind to the irony there: I'm making an emotive statement (beliefs) about the value of unemotional logic.

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

And I let my emotions interact with you earlier emotional logic. I should have asked you a question first:
Which voting do you find irrelevant today? Is it just the presidential or all voting in general?