There has been a great deal written and even more spoken over the past months about why we don't vote, yet the answers are less likely to be found in current behaviours than they are in the subtleties of post-modern thinking.
We live in a consumer society; one in which the dominant although not exclusive trend is to assess the value of the products we purchase and the activities we engage in by the benefits they bring to us as individuals.
This articulates itself in the reasons for low voter turnout that I hear in the course of my studies and travels across the country.
The most frequent is that "I don't know if I'll vote because I don't agree with everything any of the candidates has to say" or, in other words, there is no single party or candidate that affirms us individually -- at least not at the level required to inspire us to return the favour by going to the polls and affirming the ambitions of one of the candidates.
When we don't see ourselves fully represented in the choices placed before us as consumers, we therefore fail to see sufficient value in the exchange of goods or services and choose not to buy into or participate in the process.
Ray Pennings of Cardus
No comments:
Post a Comment