We Have No Obligation to Vote; We Have An Obligation to be Well-Informed
Running to campus, haven't read this.
But this is a line I've often spouted: the common claim that we all need to vote, that it is our civic duty, is deeply flawed. It strongly suggests that it is voting per se that we are obligated to do. However, what we're really obligated to do is vote responsibly. And that means: be informed and vote. Much better to say that our primary civic duty in this vicinity is to be informed. If you're well-informed about policy and politics, then you will vote--few people are well-informed and apathetic about voting. But to simply enjoin people to vote is a huge error. Uninformed voting is no better than not voting at all.
Running to campus, haven't read this.
But this is a line I've often spouted: the common claim that we all need to vote, that it is our civic duty, is deeply flawed. It strongly suggests that it is voting per se that we are obligated to do. However, what we're really obligated to do is vote responsibly. And that means: be informed and vote. Much better to say that our primary civic duty in this vicinity is to be informed. If you're well-informed about policy and politics, then you will vote--few people are well-informed and apathetic about voting. But to simply enjoin people to vote is a huge error. Uninformed voting is no better than not voting at all.
posted by Winston Smith at
11:21 AM
2 Comments:
Nothing wrong with not voting if you don't believe in the system. No more picking the lesser of two evils for me.
Actually, I've most often thought that the obligation is just to be informed... And your point makes me revert to that thesis. If you're informed and reasonably judge that there's nobody worth voting for, I don't see how anyone could claim that you're obligated to vote.
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