I Don't Do Patronising Bullshit

I was reminded today of a video that aired in the run up to the last election, designed at combatting the drastically low voter turnouts of recent times. Here it is.



I confess, I am pre-empting the government and the media somewhat on this one, but I'd be stunned if we don't hear the same old discussion about voter numbers and non-voters this time out.

But they've missed the point. Not only have they missed the point, they've been arrogant and offensive about it. Faced with a country in which a mere 61.3% of the population turned out to vote at the last general election, the assumption is drawn by the people of power that the non-voters are ignorant, thick-headed plebs who're too thick and too lazy to embrace the wonderous workings of democracy. And what's their answer? To produce a ridiculous television spot which patronises and humiliates the nonvoters, to try and ridicule them into conformity.

Fuck them, because I won't be voting. When the powerholders are sneering and the thickheaded proles who don't know what's good for them, they'll be sneering at me. And I'll bet it's a rare and tiny fragment of them who'll entertain the notion that perhaps I didn't vote because I am *very much* concerned and involved in the political state of the people. Perhaps I didn't vote because I don't wish to give my endorsement in any way to a system of depoliticisation and gross overlegislation. A system where the masses are excluded from the spaces of freedom whilst the powerholders are excluded from spaces of law.
This is what the powerholders need to realise, and what there is scant chance they ever will - That when less than to thirds of the voting populace doesn't turn out, there's not something wrong with them, there's something wrong with you.




And there is another point, which I have split off for sake of clarity, but which is just as important and raises my hackles even more. That ridiculous TV spot, drenched as it is in the arrogance of the powerholders, suggests that those who don't vote, those who don't conform to the system, deserve to be depoliticised. Of course, this arrogance, this view, and in general the whole belief that, in all its forms, power belongs to the power holders is nothing new. It is the heart of the whole digusting mess. This video is just another example, another point where it breaks the surface. But it's enraging, all the same.

And you know who whose attitudes those preposterous charicatures in the video call to mind the most? Politicians.