"If I don't vote I can't complain" and other goofiness.

Via Scott Adams and the DilbertBlog: The Stuff in My Head

I remember one day in sixth grade, our teacher asked us to go to the blackboard, one at a time, and write down something we would be willing to die for... When my turn came, I wrote “my country” and apparently this was the right answer. He praised me in front of the class. He also would have accepted freedom and democracy.

So how did a 12-year old know he should die for his country? That stuff gets in your head early, way before your critical reasoning capacity is in place. And it stays there... I think the environment puts it there, thanks to 900 recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance and whatnot...

I’m not complaining. I’m glad that kids are being brainwashed to die for me. But it has become a hobby of mine to identify the ideas that got into our heads before our critical reasoning came together. Obviously if you have the same religion or political preferences as your parents, that’s a red flag. Or as you might say, “I agree with my parents because they were right.” But my favorite example, and the cleanest, can be seen in the comments on this blog for the past week. Many of you said, in essence, “No matter how ignorant you are, you have a responsibility to vote,” and its dumber cousin “If you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to complain.”

It doesn’t take much critical reasoning to shred those ideas. I’m fairly certain we have the right to complain any time we want. It’s called Freedom of Speech. And we certainly have the right to NOT vote for any reason we want. Being ignorant has to be in the short list of good reasons for not voting. But this flies in the face of whatever you were brainwashed into believing when you were a kid.

Again I remind you that I’m in favor of this sort of brainwashing for the sake of society. I’m happy that lots of people vote. The system would break down otherwise, and short of me being the dictator, I can’t think of a better system than imaginary democracy masking the naked ambitions of greedy capitalists. It sounds bad when you say it, but frankly I don’t have a better idea. I’m just happy I have a chance to be one of those greedy capitalists myself...