A few words on Election Day

Taking a minute break from my studies, I would just like to say a few words about Election Day that is approaching very soon. Mind you this may seem quite idealistic and theoretical, but theory is where things begin, yes? It also might seem like a overused reality check, but reading through history, there is no such thing as too many reality checks.

For a while, especially since the campaigning began, I was quite cynical about the entire political process. In a mindset that still holds to this very minute, I saw the campaigning led by both Democratic and Republican parties as somewhat of a humorous game, where Obama and McCain would duke it out across the nation to poke at each others' soft spots and eventually wound them in the final popularity contest: Voting Day. I saw the eagerness of the international world and American media to portray each candidate in the most degrading and satirical fashion as possible and despite the fact that the two candidates were human beings, would fuel the momentum of the fight in the same manner a matador infuriates and riles bulls. But most of all, I saw the American public injecting their system with the whole game. With a society increasingly driven towards developing values according to the principles of fear (e.g. prospects of instability in economy, terrorism, disfunctional family, overgrowth in population, climate change and increasing natural disasters, nuclear war, etc) and the seeming inability of the current President to take correct decisive action, the election itself seemingly provided the public with a chance to relieve themself of the fear associated, almost as if the American people look for a Savior in the seat of the Oval Office. "ObamaCain" as a synonym for Novacaine to relieve the pain associated with the 21st Century life on a macro and individual scale.

For these reasons, I intentionally avoided most contact with any campaigning and political debate going on. Paired with the fact that existentialism happened to be one of the topics that I had been most engrossed with, politics seemed useless in the face of such an unpredictable future, and I wanted nothing to do with the shams that seemingly hid under the mask of the American search for a new President.

For the heck of it, I tried myself on the Political Compass questionare today. I took it once before in junior year of high school and I found myself quite close to Stalin, a left-winged authoritarian. Retaking it, I found myself to be now more like Milton Friedman, a right-winged libertarian. "Crap, I changed that much in just two years?" I thought. It then struck me the reason why the public should really vote.

It's to reaquaint us with ourselves. Like a reality check except that this reality check will affirm our current selves in a formal declaration. One of the most popular responses to not voting is, "My vote doesn't make a difference." True. It probably won't especially in a state like California. But I highly doubt most people who have an inkling of seriousness about the next President walk into the election booth with a blindfold, tripping, and smashed drunk. No, they probably take some time to soberly think about their beliefs, idealistic or not, and double check them before putting them down on paper. Whether or not it had any impact on the millions of votes, the voter who walked in will walk out knowing what ideals he/she agreed with and disagreed on, essentially what ideals he/she had.

This election is about self. About the individual. As idealistic as it may sound, election involvement is a chance for reevaluation that many people like myself simply don't take the time to do anymore. Extending this rationale further, it lets individuals who make up a unit of community bounce views off each other. Bringing some of my nerdy self to the table, its much like SONAR where you find things that can't be seen by the naked eye, simply by bouncing sound off of it. Alternative views on the issue of political and economic structure that bounce off you can give the individual and yourself a clearer picture of what ideals are worthwhile and what are not.

More so than a struggle, game, and battle to elect the next President, the voting process is something for the self. Politics has failed if people treat it as a game in which discrimination and degradation is encouraged to breakdown an enemy party. Politics has succeeded if people can transform from people to human individuals, not just in pronouncing their views to the rest of the world in a vote, but more importantly to their ownselves. Just like taking a walk in the park alone gives yourself a bit of a chance to think about life, the voting process and election gives yourself room for reevaluation of self. Not to the deepest extents, but morals and ideals are certainly a start.