voting and abstention

I was driving back in my shared car-bubble from a mega shopping centre today, (having been to a beautician, and tried on some clothes- how superficial am I!!??) past the blank stares of so many young people. I was thinking about the way that there is a fine line in wearing clothes between being dignified, and in establishing standards of dress that set you apart from others, and hence distance you from others who can't afford or don't have the taste that you have.

I started to think about the post that my friend Simon Reeves wrote on his blog some time before the election- about voting and abstention. Simon is a guy who just radiates warmth and justice- so he's someone i really respect. Simon does not vote.

But I started to think there was something profound in the fact that he doesn't vote. His justification and his action were both profound. In other cases- several anarchists I know, and the case of the Exclusive Bretheren, their abstention slightly annoys me as a signal of their negativity towards our society in general. But in Simon's case, it is clear that he has a lot of love for society - as it is, in its incomplete and imperfect form.

But his statement in not voting says to me that he is not complacent about society and the way it is today. There is something seriously wrong with our current system of structuring public decisionmaking and participation.

By not voting, Simon is making a statement about the need for democratic participation that goes far deeper than writing numbers in boxes. In my opinion, the public must become Pro-active rather that simply Re-active. Simon is making an 'embodied' statement, making a symbolic and actual sacrifice in his democratic participation, saying 'that's not adequate for us'.

If i did similarly, it would force me out of complacency- to make a serious effort to resuscitate our passive political culture until I see real structural results.

I might consider it next time.