Last Thursday, I had an IM conversation with my brother, who told me that he wasn’t going to the polls on Let’s Endorse This Murderous System™ Day. Here’s the relevant portion of the chat:
Brother: non-participating, right?
Me: yup
Brother: jesse too
Brother: me too
Brother: we don’t like the menu nor process
Brother: we are in the same canoe
Me: voting = violence by proxy
Brother: here’s a paddle, let’s find an island
Brother: ric is also in the canoe
Three tidbits about this:
- Until this conversation, we never discussed politics, at least directly;
- He offered his ‘opt-out’ status freely without my asking him;
- Though I have no clue how his two friends lean politically outside of their non-participatory stance, based on the little I know, neither of them lead lives remotely similar to mine.
Certainly, I’d like to find out how he and his friends reached the same decision as I did this election cycle. I’d be particularly interested to find out if they would have acted differently if the ‘menu’ or the ‘process’ were different. But I find it interesting — and encouraging — that the four of us arrived the same conclusion without consulting each other.
