Civil duty and disappointment
January 14th, 2023
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
― Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time
Since I turned 18 and was of age for full civil rights, I didn't miss any vote in any election in which I was eligible to participate. I thought about it as my given right, my duty, and my pass to full inclusion in all aspects of living in a society. Civil obedience — if you like. And that is quite ironic since the concept of civil disobedience is the main and major right and duty of every person in my socio-political views. It didn't matter what election it was — local, provincial, referendums for this or that, national and intra-national parliamentary elections, presidential — I was there, usually very early in the morning as one of the first people to cast a vote (sometimes even the first one to turn in the ballot). That has been going on for thirty years.
I vote for a particular person of a political party or a movement for a variety of reasons. I do the research before each election, but that research usually only confirms what I already know — my vote will go to a party or a movement or a person who will do the least damage. I vote for the lesser of two evils every single time I cast my vote. Ok, there was one time when I voted in the euphoria of expectations of a good change — that was in 2008 for Barack Obama for his first term as president — but that good feeling was gone within the next couple of months after the election. Other than that, I hold my nose and cast a vote for those for whom I have little respect and expectation, and hope, knowing that voting for the opposition (or forgoing a vote at all) will bring even worse people and movements into power.
The results of all my voting are a continuing streak of disappointment and anger and degeneration of hope. That might seem like an exaggeration but is not. My life is going on ok, I can see positive changes in the lives of people I know or know of. I see slow progress on social issues and even attempts at a dialog between different points of view and values. But there is still an acutely felt pain of knowing that we can do and can be so much better! Just being ok, just living from day to day without much directly felt consequences of the decisions of those in power is not enough. Of course, I speak only for those places I know and participate in personally — Poland the United States, and the European Union. But I know enough to realize that there are no better options anywhere else (actually — choices for people in most countries in the world are even more limited and dispiriting). I feel distressed by the realization that there is no political party or a movement that could represent me, or in which I would be glad to be a supporter of their cause. And I looked long and hard for thirty years to find that representation of my views in the political spectrum. No luck so far. I will keep voting and will keep a bemused knowledge of its futility to myself.
