Today is Federal election day. I can't think of a more appropriate date to explain why I won't be voting. In fact, I haven't voted for a very, very, long time.
The topic of voting came up in a casual conversation with friends the other day. They are both voters, so perhaps they might find it difficult to understand why I wouldn't want to exercise my franchise, and choose a suitable candidate/party.
As I am prone to do from time to time, I went off on somewhat of a rant about how I tar all politicians with the same brush. In my opinion, they are ALL very good at telling the people what they think the people will want to hear, and they are ALL prone to talking out of both sides of their mouths. As far as I can tell, there are only two goals for any politician. The first goal is to get elected, and the second goal is to stay elected. Anyway, that was the gist of my short rant. One great way to change the topic of conversation, is to talk politics.
After I had dropped them off at the airport, and was on my return journey home, I found myself mulling over this recent conversation, and that got me to thinking. So what follows, might help the reader understand one of the main reasons why I think that spending any of my remaining precious moments going to a voting station to vote is such an absolute waste of my time. Here goes.
Let's say that one day you woke up, and you weren't feeling well. It didn't seem like anything serious, so you figured that you would just ignore the feeling, and hope that tomorrow you would be feeling better. The next day arrived, and you now felt worse, not better. Your health continued to deteriorate, so finally you decided that the best thing to do, was to go visit the doctor. Perhaps, the doctor could diagnose your problem.
The doctor asked all kinds of questions, arranged for a multitude of tests, and told you to return in one week.
"Please sit down" the doctor said, and right then and there, you suspected that the news wasn't going to be good news. You were correct. After exhaustive tests, the results confirmed that you have stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and in the doctor's educated opinion, having looked through all of the SCIENTIFIC evidence, you now had six months and maybe up to one year left to live.
You had an inkling that the news was going to be bad, but certainly not THIS BAD. So, what to do?
At this point you really only have a couple of choices. You can accept the news, and try and make the most of your remaining time here on earth, or you can pretend that this is all just a bad dream, and that everything is OK. But deep down, you know that the doctor is right, and as hard as it may be to come to accepting the doctor's diagnosis, you decide that it really is the best option going forward.
Now let's move to the topic of abrupt, irreversible climate change. This is a subject that I have been following now for 15 years, so I think that I have a pretty good handle on what the truth is. And the truth, according to the science, is that things are very bad, and getting worse, and there isn't anything that anyone can do in order to reverse our course. And here is where I get to the point of this essay. And that is, there isn't anything that any politician from either side of the political aisle can do, that would have an impact on the trajectory that we are on. Wile E Coyote has already run past the cliff edge. Thelma and Louise are already flying through the air in their car. You get the point.
So as the title of this blog states, "Why would I vote?" Everything, and I mean everything comes in as a distant second place to abrupt irreversible climate change. So no matter what topic the politicians are spouting off about, it has become totally irrelevant at this late stage of the human experience. Hence, I won't be voting today, or any other day for that matter.
Instead, I'll spend some quality time with my current furball, Logan. He, like all of my other four-legged friends are totally oblivious to the state of the planet in 2019. They've got it good.
"Hey Paul, isn't it time for our afternoon nap."
"If you don't want to nap, I can always keep myself amused with the fish."
Here is a link to my previous story about the Federal election, four years ago. As it was then, it is the same now. The ECONOMY always seems to be the MOST important issue. As my friend, Guy says, "If you think that the economy is more important than the environment, try counting your money while holding your breath." See how well that works out.
http://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2015/10/another-pointless-election-that-avoids.html
maximizing my moments,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
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