The Voting Psychosis, by R. A. Childs, Jr., in 1968

Americans are largely governed by myths and illusions. This has always been the case with every "people," and may well be inevitable. But nowhere outside of America do we find the dominance of one single belief: the belief in voting. Everywhere and for every purpose, voting is seen as the sacred answer for any problem whatever.

Vote, politicians tell us, and you shall be saved from all disasters. You shall inherit the earth, and establish the kingdom of God here on earth. Peace, freedom, wealth, happiness - all shall be yours. Just vote. So, like a herd of cattle, Americans periodically round themselves up, file by the millions into voting booths, pull levers, and "cast a ballot." The question is:  Why bother indulging in this massive opinion mongering contest?

To vote is not to "govern yourself" or any other such absurdity. A nation is not a self: It is only an abstraction meaning a whole lot of people. Govern a nation? You are governing others. You are supporting a system founded on the principle of pushing people around. YOU can govern YOURSELF without any help. So why bring others into the picture?

You are choosing your own leaders? To lead you where? And if you don't really know, why pretend that you are really choosing your own course of action? You are making no "social contract" with anyone, for the terms are not specified, the agreement not explicit or written. No politician will be bound by his promises. Peace, or liberty, can only come when leaders are too weak or feeble to lead, coerce or command. Choose your own destiny? You are deceived, citizen. YOU are on a political leash.

You are electing "representatives?" Then you will be personally responsible for his action? How can you be, when you hide behind a "secret ballot?" Representatives to do something in your name? Can you, then, dismiss him when he breaks his promises, and does not do what he claimed he would? When he lies, and betrays you? You cannot. You are stuck with him. His will is sacred - it is "law" and he enforces it upon YOU. No representation here, citizen. He does not obey YOUR will, or conform to YOUR demands. You are subordinated to HIS. You are HIS tool, he is not yours. Who, after all, forces whom to do what? Who takes all he wants from whom? Who sends whom off to become cannon fodder and fertilizer in foreign lands? Who pushes whom around? Who imprisons whom? If a politician is indeed YOUR representative, how can HE tell YOU what to do? How can HE punish YOU for disobeying HIM? Strange representation, citizen.

Someone has total power - power even of life and death - over you, and you think HE represents YOU. You think HE is the servant, and YOU the master. Ah, delusion! What is it then, to vote? It is to deceive oneself, to pretend that YOU are not governed. Citizen, remember Proudhon:

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, directed, regulated, penned up, preached at, checked, appraised, censored, commanded. To be governed is to have every operation, every transaction, every movement voted, stamped, rated, measured, counted, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, indulged, prevented, referred, redressed. To be governed is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be laid under contribution, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted, exhausted, hoaxed, and robbed. Then, upon the sightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, annoyed, hunted down, beaten, disarmed, imprisoned, shot, judged, condemned, banished, sacrificed, betrayed, and to crown all, ridiculed, derided, outraged, and dishonored."

Look around you, law-abiding citizen, taxpayer, filer of a thousand forms, gun bearer, warrior, victim, corpse, you with a thousand other scarred faces. Who governs whom?

Is this what you vote for?