Sunday, October 7, 2012

Fuck Voting

"At long last, the regression I’ve been looking for..." - Chris Matthews, pulling the lever

"Some shit you've just got to eat, but that doesn't mean you have to say thank you." - prominent voter George Clooney

"We serve the master we deserve, as long as we serve him." - Hugo Chavez

“Same shit, different fan.” - Big Bird

"It's like spilling your seed some place dry.” -  Kelsey Grammer 

"Presidential politics is like an ex I claim to be over, all the while ruthlessly stalking on Facebook." - Janeane Garofalo

"Sometimes the palette does not deserve to be cleansed." - John Malkovich

"It isn't worth trying to fix any of this." - Barack Obama, helping Sasha with her homework

"It's much more honest to do nothing than to engage in the illusion of doing something, to embrace your own powerlessness rather than make believe you have a say in anything." - Jimmy Carter, burning his ballot

"In every critique there is defeat. Nothing condemns the Democratic Party more than articulate denunciations of the Republican Party. Can you imagine takedowns of the Democrats as clear and eviscerating as those of the Republicans that appear in every center-left paper in the country on a weekly basis? Where would the ideological substance be? The Democrats simply are not there. One only says of them: they hold us back." - bandito Paul Krugman

"The Democrats are like an old girlfriend: I avoid them, I can't understand how I ever loved them, and to think of them fills me with shame, anger, resentment, humiliation... and yet I can't help still being a little sexually attracted to them. That's why Obama's performance in the debate was so disappointing: my dick didn't perk up once. To have lost even that! And you know, I was close to breaking my pledge to sit this election out. I'd been thinking: it's been dicey for Obama lately, he might actually lose, maybe I better vote. If only he could have made me feel the heat, one last time! To see the utter mediocrity of the System personified in its Leader was too much for me. And that's how I realized I was a Stalinist." - Wallace Shawn

"Voting is a renewal of vows with the State. It is a drama that we play out for ourselves, through which we create an imaginary relationship to the rest of society and pledge our fealty to it. The actual choice of candidate is irrelevant: what's important is that you give your consent to be ruled. Voting has of no practical significance whatsoever except as ritual, but this is nothing to sneeze at, for today, more than ever, society relies on ritual and superstition to hold together. Magical thinking is the last line of defense against the unrelenting corrosion of social life by capital. But whereas a true 'a line of defense' is intended to keep the enemy out, the function of democracy, nationalism, and other myths is to regulate our exposure to the enemy, to make sure that its raids are never so devastating that we can't rebuild and be raided again, to ensure our willing participation in our own exploitation. Without myths, there is no faith in the State; without our faith, the State loses its monopoly on violence; without State violence, capital loses its most enthusiastic and reliable enforcer. This is why I think it is important not to vote: only by giving up can we win." - Erik Prince

"The standard is: How can you confront your historical moment head on?" - Daniel-Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln trying to decide on a write-in candidate

1 comment:

  1. Believe me this post is as tedious and half-funny as the author was in conversation.

    ReplyDelete