[MD] Krimel's Manifesto - A first draft

[Arlo Bensinger]

[SA]
I told you.  Maybe the mainstream culture will try to find out 
why.  Maybe mainstream culture will have to reach out and try to 
change the way things are.

[Arlo]
So, your plan is that by not voting, the "maintstream culture" will 
try to find out why, and then who will change things? When will _you_ 
stand up and actually try to make a change, rather than sitting back 
and hoping the "mainstream culture" will figure out why you are not 
voting, and then maybe the "mainstream culture" will change things?

Not to mention that the "mainstream culture" has been asking "why is 
voter turnout so low?" since 1972. What answers have gotten anyone anywhere?

[SA}
I think gov't is too big.  I told you before that the gov't could 
watch for enemies on the horizon.

[Arlo]
This is a different topic, but okay, do you really feel safe with 
these clowns making enemies at every turn? Are you content to sit 
back and wait until the "mainstream culture" changes things and 
passively accept aggressive, warmongering buffoons like Dubya?

And while the government restricts itself to "watching for enemies on 
the horizon" (no doubt they will find them abundant), what do you 
propose we do about public libraries, police, fire and EMT, public 
parks and national forests, the civic courts, the federal reserve and 
mint, the public roadways and waterways, mass transit, public 
education, diplomacy efforts (assuming we actually want to make 
friends, rather than lying on the ground with sniper rifles waiting 
for ghouls and goblins)? What about water, sewage, trash and reading 
initiatives in your local area? What about protecting your beloved 
valleys and hiking paths from landfills and the millions of tons of 
garbage we churn out daily? Who do you think does all this? 
Government... that is _you_ and _me_,  we do it, we are the government, SA.

And that is the crux of the problem. You have bought into (it seems) 
that deplorable and cancerous rhetoric of neoconservatism, that 
paints "the big bad government" as some external, outside, evil 
agency just waiting in the shadows to ruin your life and take away 
your liberties. When the government is bad, it is because we are bad. 
When the government is abusive, it is because we are apathetic.

[SA]
If this answer doesn't satisfy you, which it doesn't seem to since 
I'm repeating my answer, then tell me why I should vote?  Why does 
voting change anything?

[Arlo]
Because if 90% of the people didn't vote, nothing would change, SA. 
But if 90% of the people cared and were involved, everything would change.

[SA]
Might I remind you I work with troubled youth. The future of this country.

[Arlo]
Again, SA, I never proposed you did not "care" about "anything", nor 
did I claim that you are not effecting change with your work. But 
what do you tell these kids? Don't vote, because your vote is 
meaningless? Don't vote and sit back and wait for the mainstream 
culture to figure out what's wrong and fix it? Or do you teach them 
agency? Do you teach them to stand up and try to fix things they 
think are broken? And even if one person doesn't change the system, 
it is better to have tried to do what is right and failed, than to 
sit back and accept mediocrity?

I certainly hope that the future of this country does stand up and 
get involved and care, rather than tune out. Indeed, that's the 
problem today, no one cares. Everyone is too busy with that, or too 
apathetic about this, or they are so convinced that nothing will ever 
change, they simply turn into good sheep and allow ever-shrinking 
minorities or wealthy power brokers tell them what they can and can't do.

[SA]
Believe whatever message you want to.  But I'm unhappy with the 
system and not the latter.

[Arlo]
That's like saying you're unhappy because your car doesn't work, but 
happy to sit back and wait for some mechanic to recognize that its 
broken and then fix it. If you were truly unhappy, SA, you'd be 
working to change things, not sitting back and either ignoring it or 
hoping someone else changes it for you.

I think the reason this issue riles so many, is because it completely 
undermines the citizen-participation required for a democracy to 
operate. You say, ah but its a republic, not a democracy. Fine, and 
who left it become that? We did. We have no one to blame but 
ourselves. And who's going to fix it. If not you, who?

See that's the other problem, all these unhappy people sitting around 
waiting for someone else to do the work. And we wonder why we get 
nothing but clowns to vote for.

[SA]
Yes, "we the people".  I'm a real person Arlo.

[Arlo]
And when did I ever imply or state otherwise?