Wooden Ships

We are leaving. You don't need us.
--David Crosby
"Wooden Ships"

I've already discussed my decision not to vote in the next election unless the Democrats, bless their pointy little sheepskin-clad muzzles, decide to make a serious effort to end the Viet...er, Iraq War.

Far from being apolitical, refusing to participate in a farce such as a U.S. presidential election proceeds from a viable political position, and a boycott is a revolutionary act. The clowns of the political circus need to know there are some of us who will no longer take their baggy-pants routine seriously.

Millions of Americans eligible to vote don't bother. It's impossible to tell how many forego that empty ritual out of ignorance and apathy, and how many consciously refuse to partcipate because they're alienated. But the effect is the same in either case, and the number of non-voters needs to rise.

This is passive resistance, as taught by Gandhi and transmitted by Dr. King. It's a way of saying, "I will not buy your effing charade," The reason for non-participation in the elections of 2008 is that those of us who opposed the war in 2006, then voted, were effectively disenfranchised.

Alienation is the prelude to revolt, which can only get under way once the alienated become conscious of their numbers and begin to work together. The coming confrontation, the seed of which germinated in Seattle in 1999, is very slowly sprouting leaves, and I may not live to see it flower. But its coming is inevitable. It will be aimed against the dictators of global capital and their primary product, perpetual war. Global capital and corporate power are the master, and the American political system -- both of them -- is its handmaiden and water boy.

In the absence of organized resistance right now, there are still lots of ways available to us to stick it to the man. Don't borrow money. Don't spend frivolously; the system feeds on our affluenza. Don't drive or at least drive as little as possible. Avoid meat, and buy locally-produced foodstuffs as often as you can. Be very discriminating about where you lodge your savings (if you stop feeding the corporate beast you'll certainly have some). Above all, don't participate in their political dog-and-pony show, a distraction aimed at preventing people from grappling with their real problems and recognizing their real oppressors.

I've felt a lot of nostalgia lately for the sixties, painful, confused, and desperate time that it was. Even though my friends and I were young and unschooled, we were dead right about what was going on. "The system," we used to say, "is a machine, and it's out of control." What a shame we backed away from our youthful convictions as the years passed and became "reasonable."

We also used to say, "The only way to deal with a society this messed up is to drop out of it and make a world of your own." But somewhere along the line most of us made peace with The Way Things Are, and it was a big mistake.

Be sure to read Catherine Fitts's article "Economic Hit Men" for more on this topic.

And don't vote. It only encourages them.