I once saw George Carlin live when I was about 15 years old in Massachusetts. I was forever a fan, and I often look back to his views on all sorts of things. Today I remembered Carlin’s line about our civic duty, “If you vote you have no right to complain.” I had just voted, and realized that I couldn’t bitch about the system, because I’m a part of it. George Carlin claimed he didn’t vote. He felt that our society was so beyond disrepair that it was pointless to waste his time. Now, I partly agree with him. I think our two-party system takes money from many of the same sources. We gave much of our power over to corporate interests a long time ago. Morgan Stanley funded Bush, and the Saudis gave money to Hillary (specifically to the Clinton Foundation). Big money is in charge. That may be cynical, but I feel it’s really more realistic. Even our two-party system works fundamentally on how the state manages our resources (especially when it comes to money redistribution).
Another George Carlin line came to mind as I left the voting booth on the way to the gym, “Symbolism is for the symbol minded.” Again Carlin is saying something I mostly agree with. I can’t really defend the opposite. If I veered towards this nihilistic road then I’d be in big trouble. I’ve found every time in my life when I became fatalistic I suffered badly. I needed something greater than the base level of reality to push myself to a better place. I’m not saying everyone needs a deity. I’m not saying that we all need Buddha or Jesus, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a symbol. I believe in the stars and stripes among other things. My grandfather and grandmother left a D.P. camp in Germany in order to have a beautiful life in America. The stars and stripes protected them from the horrors of Poland (even after WWII ended). Symbolism becomes problematic when we become infantilized as a result of it. Symbolism can be a great strength when we are conscious of it. I know America along with every other nation has made mistakes. All people all over the world experienced plague, famine, disease, war and slavery. That’s what unites all humanity; suffering unites us all; suffering allows us to transcend; transcendence is for everyone who wishes to endure.
How do we endure? How do we continue to push along the greatest nation the world has ever known? We must engage, even symbolically so. One vote may be meaningless in the final result. You may not be happy with your senator or president. You voted, and now you have no right to complain. So, why vote? Carlin said, “Symbolism is for the symbol minded.” Unfortunately that’s how humanity works. We need symbols. We need Buddha, Jesus, Batman and the stars and stripes. We need something to aspire to. We need to exercise the right to vote for more than just our civic duty. We vote, because it’s a powerful symbol that they don’t run us (at least not totally). We govern ourselves. We have the liberty to decide our own path. It was fought for, and countless died to create a nation with the utmost freedom. When we vote we exercise our free will, in a free land, under the grace of God, and with that symbolic gesture of the vote we continue to be free. A vote is for more than just the country; it’s an act to announce to the world that you are here, free and proud to be an American.