The author is taking a break from her regular blogging programming to defend her right to not vote. Rest assured, she will be back to her fun dirty antics by tomorrow. She was just particularly irked by comments made by people whose minds are not able to grasp the concept of passive resistance. She believes that expressing rage is healthy.
Who was it that said that the biggest tragedy in the world isn’t when evil triumphs over good? It’s when we don’t have the capacity to recognize evil anymore and we allow it to live in our homes, dine at our tables, play with our kids, fondle our pets, and screw us blind.
May 14, 2007, will be an especially terrible, tragic Monday.
The Philippines will once again be in the thick of Election Frenzy. A new batch of wannabes want to be installed in positions where they can either do good or rake in profit. Some of them may actually mean well but most of them are just greedy motherfuckers who want to siphon money from the nation’s coffers. But that’s old news.
That politicians tend to be self-serving creatures who prioritize their own interests is already a given. That’s why I’ve given up on them. If a few impress me for brief moments now and then, they later make me feel ashamed of feeling hopeful for a few seconds.
If you live in a country where the minimum requirements for a stress-free day are hardly ever met, you’ll get what I’m talking about. This, of course, does not apply to any of the self-righteous and privileged people who find it soooooo easy to commit to causes because a) they don’t fucking use public transport, b) they were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and c) they’re not really struggling to make ends meet because, well, they’re lucky enough to be on top of the food chain.
So, no. I am not voting for any politician anytime soon. Go ahead and sue me. Voting is not the only way that one can show support for the country. I support my country by overpaying my taxes, obeying traffic rules, and just basically not being corrupt. So, please, overzealous crusaders should respect me and my non-voting posse. We don’t even care where our money goes. Hopefully, a small part of our tax contributions go to the needy. Change the system, you say? That’s an old song already. And that tune will not be changed by any election. It’s been 21 years since I was last hopeful about politicians. (Do the Math. That’s 1986, when Yellow Fever hit the archipelago.) And all we’ve had since then are repeat performances of moral bloopers. No, “I’m sorry” and a few drops of crocodile tears don’t freaking cut it.
With politicians running the show, I don’t know if there’s any hope for a country whose people are doing their best to survive. Politicians will never see the light. God can strike them with cancer, take away their offsprings in gruesome manners, or even saddle their whole family with debt. Yet…they remain pigs.
I guess we have to get them while they’re young. Let’s all take pointers from the 1999 movie Election, starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick.
In the film, Matthew Broderick plays a teacher who spots a budding dirty politician in Reese Witherspoon, who’s aspiring to be the president of her high school. She, of course, pulls all the dirty tricks in the book and her poor teacher struggles to put a stop to her corrupt shenanigans.
Moral of the movie: If you see any young person whom you feel has the potential of really fucking up the country some more, do your best to incapacitate him or her. Unfortunately, this task will corrupt you.
Another moral from the flick: If you deal with politicians–be they budding or fully rotting already–you’ll get dirty. By not voting, I am invoking the spirit of passive resistance. I could care less about who wins or loses. None of the presidents whom I’ve known since I was old enough to vote have really impressed me or made me feel genuinely hopeful again.
I am speaking as the child of a woman who had to work in another country so that her children could get a college education. I am speaking as the child of a man who works as a government employee in a hospital so neglected by local politicians that its operating rooms don’t even have proper floor fixtures. I am speaking as a friend of a pregnant girl who has disappeared and was most likely killed for trying to convince some peasants to empower themselves. I am speaking as the goddaughter of a man who took to the hills for a lost cause, endured torture, and has since also dropped off the face of the earth. I am speaking as a hapless taxpayer who bites down on her rage everyday. I am one puny, insignificant voice but, what the heck, “Fuck you all.” You know who you are.
So, really. If we want honest politicians, we have to weed out the bad ones while they’re still young. But, of course, that’s just wishful thinking. The world spins a certain way. I don’t think we can change it–though we can sure try.
Nevertheless, I and my ilk shall continue to rage against the machine in our own futile way. So we leave the rest of you to vote. We respect your choice to participate. So respect our decision to not participate. I hope to God you are right about making a difference by casting your votes. I’d love to be proven wrong this time around.
Then again, I wonder what would happen if none of us voted at all. Would our honorable politicians comprehend that kind of protest? It’d be akin to instances in contests when judges say, “No entry was deemed worthy of a first prize.”
This is as dirty as it gets.
I close with a quote from Hunter S. Thompson: “In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely.” (I came across this very apt quote on a wonderful site called Uniffors.com.)
