The Absurdity of Politics (cover text)

by

Fifth Estate # 271, April, 1976

The voter is a man who comes where he is summoned one day like a flunkey, to one who whistles for him as for a dog trained to obey, who comes on the said day only and not on any other day. He is a man who comes when authority says: “The moment is here to sanction one more time a system established by others and for others than yourself.

The moment is here to choose those who will be part of this system with or without the intention of modifying it; to choose those who for contributing to the functioning of the machine that crushes the weak, will be paid in silver, in influence, in privileges, in honors. The moment is here to put aside one more time the idea of revolt against the organization that exploits you and to obey its authority. The moment is here to vote, that is to say, to make an act which signifies: I RECOGNIZE YOUR LAWS.”

Is it not clear that the first meaning of abstaining from elections is this “I DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE LAWS”?

It follows that any voter (whether justly called monarchist, or wrongly socialist-revolutionary) is a conservative, since the result of his vote is to contribute to making the system function with vigor.

— Paraf-Javal

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