I have absolutely no interest in politics whatsoever. This is what I said to a UKIP candidate (or whatever he was, he was posting leaflets through peoples' front doors) when I was stopped by him as I was walking home from church on Laetare Sunday. Naturally his reaction was a short speech about how my taxes are spent, etc. I just stared at him blankly and nodded. Does this make me complacent?
I believe I have only voted once (in a local election), to the constant indignation of my mother, who persistently reminds me of my right to vote. I concede that we must ''make hay while the Sun shines'', as the saying goes, considering that in 50 years there will be no voting, only one Party, the Party of Antichrist, no freedom, the Church having been driven into new catacombs etc. The trouble is, I don't like rendering unto Caesar, because I don't like Caesar. There is always something wrong with the candidate, something very wrong, and I have a cordial loathing for most politicians anyway. And as for political parties...I find the very notion abominable. By such ill-luck was I born into these latter days. I despair of Caesar; he is a monster and in such a short time has managed to turn virtue into vice and sin into that which is praiseworthy; divorce, fornication, contraception, abortion, homosexuality - all (or at least most, we're not quite into the Last Days yet) conceivable abuses are held aloft, reflecting the most reprehensible grotesqueries of human nature (or at least the nature of a Man who has given up - why bother observing even the Natural law when you have ceased loving God - or even acknowledging that there is one?), and the Church and her ministers, the entire perfect society on earth, are kicked sideways. But then what is the use of complaining? Surely we are blessed when we are abused for Our Lord's sake?
Kingship is naturally the best form of government, not democracies which fragment authority. Nature is afterall hierarchical...
Do I, therefore, vote or don't I?
Friday 9 April 2010
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You have a civic responsibility to vote. I believe Fr. Tim has posted on this point before - HERE and HERE.
ReplyDeleteAt the very least, go to the Polling Station and spoil your ballot paper. This shows that you are not just apathetically not bothering...
Someone (I forget who) said that for evil to triumph, good men just need to do nothing. Voter apathy is a bit like that: if you don't bother to vote, you have no right to criticise the government at all...
Yes! Please go and vote conservative. Anything to get the current bunch of clowns out of office!
ReplyDeleteMac is talking rot. Principled abstention has nothing to do with 'apathy'. A 'right' to vote which does not encompass the right to abstain is completely meaningless. Ask any North Korean. You are being invited to distinguish between competing secular liberalisms - a vaguely collectivist brand and a vaguely individualist one. To hell with them.
ReplyDeleteObey the law, love your neighbour, pay your takes, pray for Caesar, whoever he is (and he's almost always been a monster, BTW. Remember that God called even Nebuchadnezzar "My servant"). That's all that's required of you. You have here no abiding city.
If you do vote, be pragmatic. You're not going to get everything you want, or anything like it, but you might help to mitigate the darkness for a while in some corner or other. Shun all party affiliation and political ideology like the plague (including monarchism). 'Isms' are not for Christians.
"The strongest poison ever known, came from Casear's laurel crown" - Blake.
The good thing about spoiling your vote is that it will be shown to all the candidates. But Moretben is right that the right to vote includes the right not to vote..
ReplyDeleteI must agree with Mac : the right to vote actually includes a duty to vote - but it doesn't include a duty to choose the 'least worst' candidate - it's perfectly fine, as far as I can see, to write 'None of the Above' on your ballot paper.
ReplyDeleteIf everyone who doesn't now vote because they don't like any of the candidates did that, it would make it very hard for any government to claim that it had a mandate, when more than 50% of the population had actively stated that they didn't want any of the candidates !
Many thanks, all, for your comments. It may interest some to know that Tolkien's ''political'' opinions leant more (during the course of the Second World War) towards ''anarchy'' - understood to mean the abolition of control, or towards an ''unconstitutional'' monarchy. Tolkien hated the word Government (spelt with a capital G), which is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing. It ought never to refer to some sort of oligarchy, far removed from the people. Tolkien argued that a revival of personal names would be a good thing, Queen ELizabeth's Council rather than ''Number 10 Downing Street.'' Cf. The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, no 52.
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