[extropy-chat] electing ideas [was Re:Fahrenheit 911 - objectivereview?]

[Brent Neal]

 (8/15/04 13:29) Brett Paatsch <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:

>Brent Neal:
>
>> I personally intend to cast votes based on pure spite in several
>> elections just for this reason.
>
>Sounds like game theory tit for tat. 
>

Hadn't thought of it that way, but I think that you may be right. 


>The universe is contingent.  Tit for tat goes very deep in human
>psychology and in game theory and I'd encourage US voters not
>to imagine that humans are very different in wanting to see justice
>done.    

I recall reading somewhere that the "tit-for-two-tats" strategy is usually more optimal than tit for tat. Of course, in BushCo's case, there are so many 'tats' that one loses track. :)

>
>There is no totally honorable side for me to choose to be on and that
>is the fault of the leaders of my country. 

I hear you.

>
>I have seen Bush, Blair and Howard hijack the future through 
>incompetence and make it about terror when it could have been 
>a lot more about hope.  I will not forget that when I vote. 


I call it voting on the principle of least incompetence. I made the mistake in 2000 of voting for Harry Browne, the Libertarian candidate, because the thought of voting for an abject moron like Bush was morally repugnant (and because anyone that dumb must have smart handlers that'd be running the show, and I figured correctly that those handlers would be the same people that were in power during his father's presidency.) and voting Democrat was something I wasn't prepared to do. 

So this time around, I'm voting "against someone" instead of "for a set of principles."  And honestly, I don't see any other way at this point to prevent the US from turning into a complete hell-hole. Kerry may be just as spineless as any other career politician, but there is a possibility that he may be 'educatable.'  So sayeth John Perry Barlow, at least. (c.f. <http://www.reason.com/0408/fe.bd.john.shtml>)  Actually, I think that interview pretty much sums up why libertarians of any stripe should not be voting for BushCo.  ("I don’t see anything particularly free about a plutocracy.")

Brent
-- 
Brent Neal
Geek of all Trades
http://brentn.freeshell.org

"Specialization is for insects" -- Robert A. Heinlein