I like this...
Nov. 1st, 2004 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeFrom a Washington Post chat today about Americans who don't vote:
Dunn Loring, Va.: ...[T]he issue of non-voting...is an example of "free-rider" behavior: people trying to take advantage of not participating in collective activity. The classic free-rider situation is in battle when soldiers decide whether to fight or flee. If one soldier flees, he hurts the group only slightly (he is only one soldier) but he helps his own survival immensely. If lots of soldiers flee, they will be routed and even those who flee will be killed.
Although economists haven't really studied this issue formally, there is a notion of ethics that affects people's behavior in collective situations. People feel bad if they let down the group--and they should. [my emphasis]
...Did you sense any sense of guilt [because] they were not participating in democracy when they clearly benefit from having it?
And do you think that maybe many people don't vote in country because society has not made it clear that voting is not just a privilege but a duty, and not voting is just as unacceptable as fleeing the enemy in combat?
To paraphrase Shawshank Redemption: Get busy voting, or get busy leaving the democracy. You can't have it both ways--you can't take advantage of the democratic process if you don't participate.
Dunn Loring, Va.: ...[T]he issue of non-voting...is an example of "free-rider" behavior: people trying to take advantage of not participating in collective activity. The classic free-rider situation is in battle when soldiers decide whether to fight or flee. If one soldier flees, he hurts the group only slightly (he is only one soldier) but he helps his own survival immensely. If lots of soldiers flee, they will be routed and even those who flee will be killed.
Although economists haven't really studied this issue formally, there is a notion of ethics that affects people's behavior in collective situations. People feel bad if they let down the group--and they should. [my emphasis]
...Did you sense any sense of guilt [because] they were not participating in democracy when they clearly benefit from having it?
And do you think that maybe many people don't vote in country because society has not made it clear that voting is not just a privilege but a duty, and not voting is just as unacceptable as fleeing the enemy in combat?
To paraphrase Shawshank Redemption: Get busy voting, or get busy leaving the democracy. You can't have it both ways--you can't take advantage of the democratic process if you don't participate.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 11:03 pm (UTC)And let no one who stays home tomorrow complain about the outcome.
Interesting...and poignant, and appropriate, that the writer doesn't name whom he's voting for. One could easily assume Kerry, because of the inherent questioning of the war, but it would not be difficult to think this were a Bush voter who sees some value in the sacrifice of his brother. The point is that everyone must make a choice, and the writer doesn't cloud the point through partisanship. Very effective letter.