[dotti34]

Hmm! ‘forming political beliefs thorough irrational thought processes......so long as you don’t vote’. What a strange statement to make, AccyX. Why have political beliefs if you don’t vote and put them to use – now that’s irrational, doesn’t make sense to my reasonably rational mind. I did read the link you provided and to be honest the more I read the more I realised WHY we have to have a government.

If you don’t wish to vote that’s your prerogative (unlike here in Australia where it is compulsory – though easy enough to waste your vote if you so wish) but if you choose not to vote then you really forgo your right to complain when things are not going to your liking. By not voting you might not have put ‘them’ in but you didn’t keep them out either. Be thankful that you have the right to vote.

However much you are disillusioned by politicians once they are in and their promises have gone down the gurgler with the bath water (and trust me, it’s the same here – sadly it seems par for the course, almost expected to happen) realistically you have to accept that there has to be, and is going to be, a government. The only thing to do is vote for the best person, keep the pressure on them to represent their constituency as they promised, and at least you know you have done your bit.

Maybe you think that by not voting you have forcefully expressed your disapproval with the whole kit and caboodle and this gives you some sort of self-satisfaction, but I hate to have to tell you this – your non-voting really doesn’t mean a thing to anyone else. I purposely ruined my voting paper once – wrote ‘none worth voting for’ across it and felt really pleased with myself for all of five minutes, then on the way home I realised how stupid that had been, it had made me feel good for a short while but nobody else would give a damn about what I had written. It certainly didn’t make any difference to the mob that got in. Actually, from a personal point-of-view, when I thought about the suffragettes who had suffered so much to get women the vote I felt ashamed of myself.

So, like it or lump it we have to have a Government. Suggestion – why not put yourself up for election and if successful then make a difference. It would be interesting to see how long it took before you also ‘joined the club’.

As for irrational thought processes, well….