(January 23, 2017 at 9:40 am)Tonus Wrote:(January 10, 2017 at 4:19 pm)Zenith Wrote: The problem, Tonus, is that in a scenario where 10% of the population go to vote scenario, it is not the smart, knowledgeable ones who go to vote, but the gullible.
How smart can they be if they're leaving their fate in the hands of a small group of gullible people, whose influence they could negate by taking the simple action of voting?
It's complicated. And, I believe, most people who don't go to vote - even smart ones - don't feel like their fate lies in the hands of the people who go to vote.
I have observed beliefs such as:
- Nothing ever changes. - imagine how it would be like if you were to vote between Obama and Hillary Clinton, or worse, between Trump and Kim Jong-un. Would you bother go to vote? (I'll assume here that Kim Jong-un is no worse than Trump, only the former happens to live in a dictatorial state).
- My vote doesn't make a difference - imagine how it is like if, every time you vote for your state or have polls for the president, the candidate you favor earns maximum 5%. So it always happens that other candiate wins or you have to choose between two candidates you hate both the same. And you never get the chance to put in power someone that you consider to be appropriate, because you are but one in... how many millions?
- All politicians are the same - if all are the same, then why does it matter who wins?
- "If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it." - if the system is as such that it gives the people the impression that they rule, in order to keep them appeased and not rebel / turn to riots, then there is nothing you win or earn by going to vote.
Even smart people are prone to errors in their reasoning - I believe the word smart means "able to understand, learn, and think things easily" rather than "be right all the time in all the aspects that concern your life"
