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Title: Why Vote? Date: 2020 Source: *El Errante*, Spanish language anarcho-individualist magazine, issue 13 Notes: WORDS BY: Anarcho-Cynicalist Renzo Connors Authors: Renzo Connors Topics: individualism, anti-voting, Ireland Published: 2021-08-30 21:26:16Z
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” — Emma Goldman
“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” — Emma Goldman
“Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…” — Emma Goldman
I am against the state and all its institutions, which includes the institution of representative democracy. I want to see these institutions totally destroyed and done away with. These are tools of slavery used by the elite class to pacify and domesticate everyone else. The illusion of having hope in a “democratically” elected new government and council representatives is a dangerous decievement that helps manage and keep this murderous and savage system intact.
The theory of tactical voting that is being peddled by some anarchists does nothing but help to reproduce these very same state institutions anarchists have always wanted to destroy. I would never vote in any election whether for left or right politician. Their aims are the same, for power to implement their ideology. Why would I take part in something I am against (i.e. representative democracy)? No one can truly represent me and my wants and needs. Like all individuals only I myself can know what my wants and needs are. No politician is truly going to have my back. Their main concern is themselves and (or) their party, what they can gain, what support they can win, and building their career. Politicians always have an ulterior motive.
All those that run in elections want to use and apply power over people whether for good or bad. I want freedom and autonomy over my own life, I also want to see everybody have this and live their lives how they wish. By voting and taking part in these oppressive institutions I would be handing over my individual autonomy to someone else letting them make decisions that will affect my life.
It’s pretty clear to see no politician can be trusted. A lot of people hold this view and don’t bother to take part in the voting process. But despite the pessimism many still take part in it.
Politicians make deals, create policies without consulting their constituents. The selling off of public owned land across Ireland to property developers is a pretty clear example. No one was ever notified or asked their opinion on why the state and councils stop building council housing. Over the last decade the different governments under Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Labour Party, and the Green Party sold off publicly owned resources, again no was asked about whether they agreed or not.
As for the socialist and left parties they haven’t gotten the chance to fuck people over as badly as the parties mentioned above. But nonetheless they still managed to fuck people over. They deliberately withhold and sit on information they gain through their counselors and only make it public when it suits them. They infiltrate and manipulate grassroot struggles to suit their own goals. The clearest example of this is the housing campaign “Raise the Roof”. The leftie groups formed a coalition with the Labor Party (who played a major role in what’s known as the housing crisis and implemented many neo-liberal policies that many people have literally died from) and trade unions (who have a record of selling out struggles). When confronted about their joining forces with Labor the lefties were evasive and dishonest. The left groups have proven they cannot be trusted.
Like the left, the far right obviously cannot be trusted. They want to implement policies that further exclude the already excluded people in this society. The far right are racist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigration, and even bizarrely anti-unicorns. They peddle absolutely bonkers conspiracy theories from chemtrail mind control to the coming “mass migration” that will destroy “Irish culture”. They want a world of exclusion and concentration camps for anyone that is not one of them or suit their narrative of who and what is acceptable in society.
But what about the power to create positive change through referendums? Referendums are just as much of an illusion of the state as voting for councilors and changes of government. On one hand, rights can be granted and made legal by the state. But on the other hand, while one right is won many others are took away or not implemented at all. Referendums feed into the delusion that we all actually have a say on how we live our lives, that the state actually works.
All states are oppressive, whether democratic, dictatorship, red, green, fascist. States and governments are used to control and regulate people’s lives. It gives people selected options to pick and choose from what’s acceptable or not. All governments, parties and politicians say they want and are fighting for a greater good. But for who is this greater good for?