After speaking with many friends of mine, I have informally determined that around 20% of the people I know voted. The overwhelming reason for this lack of showing at the polls: Apathy.

I can understand to some degree, why people would feel fed up and no longer care. A multitude of incidents ranging from the stolen election of 2000 to diebold’s “malfunctioning” electronic voting systems make it feel like the elections are rigged. On top of that, the complete domination of the presidency, house, and senate further propagate the feeling of disillusionment my friends (who are not surprisingly largely progressive) feel.

Of the 10-15 people I asked who didn’t vote, the overwhelming response was either that their vote doesn’t matter, so why bother. In an odd way, it makes me think of Voltaire’s famous quote: “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible”. Taking the quote a little bit further, it’s equally true that if no snowflake ever shows up, an avalanche cannot occur. No change happens if all of the little snowflakes, all 10-15 of them, stay home because they think they don’t matter.

I’ll admit, I’m exhausted too. I care too much, and probably out of self interest. During the last election, a friend quoted a chapter from Moby Dick called “The Monkey Rope”. You can find it here.

It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag me down to his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature united us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed.