[extropy-chat] Democracy is a lie

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 4/26/07, TheMan <mabranu at yahoo.com> wrote:

Severely mentally deranged people are not allowed to
> vote - or so we are made believe. Some people may
> think a given person is too deranged to be allowed to
> vote, whereas others may think the same person is
> mentally sane enough to be allowed to vote. Who is
> right about who is too deranged? The psychiatrists?
> Says who? Says the majority of the people in
> elections? Then who is the people? The deranged too?


In Australia, you get fined if you don't vote. Come election time, all the
inpatients in the psychiatric wards are given an opportunity to vote, and
those who refuse or are so unwell that they are unable to understand what
the ballot paper is for get a letter from their doctor so that the fine is
waived. So essentially, in Australia mentally ill people *have* to vote,
unless they have a good excuse. And I see nothing wrong with this.

Stathis Papaioannou
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