Why I Won’t Vote
Recently
by James Altucher: How
To Break Free From Prison
I was asked
this during my last Twitter QA:
Bryan
M. Smith ?@bryanmsmith: Who are you voting for in the election
why?
Answer: I donÂ’t
vote. I wonÂ’t vote. I have no political anti-establishment
reason for not voting. IÂ’m not an anarchist. I just donÂ’t
see why I should vote. A vote is a choice between two elaborate
theatrical productions. ItÂ’s a choice between the aesthetics
of Star Wars versus Indiana Jones. ItÂ’s a vote to see which
artist more cleverly evokes our mythological and unconscious responses
to the perilous world around us. We all die but “hope and change”
properly demonstrated gives us a signal that our choices can help
society live forever, that the small stain we leave behind has a
chance of survival even after we are long dead.
Is it better
for you or me if Mitt Romney or Barack Obama is President? I wish
Bush hadnÂ’t been President. Too many 18 year olds were sent
to die. I wish Bill Clinton hadnÂ’t been President and spent
years wrapped up in impeachment litigation after lying to his wife
and the country. ItÂ’s great to have the entire past to look
back on. Essentially every President was bad. I canÂ’t think
of a good one. They all wove dreams out of the fabric of their intelligence
but when they left us we were lonelier than ever.
Heck, I would
be bad if I were President. Unless I did absolutely nothing. Which
is hard for the leader of the free world to do. He feels like he
has to do something. Like kill people (“intervention”)
or disrupt the way we trade with each other (“tarrifs”,
“immigration!”). Or disrupt the way we try to save for
our futures (“money printing!”).
People get
very upset about this voting thing. IÂ’m accused of being unpatriotic,
for instance. Or my little 10 year old told me, “more people
will run stop signs if we don’t have a President.” She
associates a President with a magical parent. Perhaps projecting
her own sense that I donÂ’t give her enough boundaries for her
to figure out where the edge of childhood ends and adulthood begins.
I let her run a Stop sign when I donÂ’t set a bedtime, or turn
her TV off. She wants a President who will tell her when to “STOP!”
So here are
some reasons for not voting. IÂ’m not asking anyone to agree
with me. Many people like to vote. Do things that you like to do.
A) One woman
wrote: “Sara Manela ?@MidianiteManna: Tell that to sick kids
with no insurance. Yes, it will effect our lives, b/c weÂ’re
not all rich like you.”
Sara is very
angry at me for not voting. Somehow IÂ’m not only allowing children
to be “sick” but she takes it personally: “we’re
not all rich like you”. Most of my life, maybe even now, I’ve
been pretty poor and without any health insurance. It reminds me
of the head of Blackstone saying to a friend of mine, “Fuck
Larry Page. Why does that kid have $18 billion when I only have
$2 billion.”
All the time
I grapple with my own emotional issues around money. With the people
who have more. With the people who seem to be an overnight success.
With the 20 years of 100 hour weeks and the dozens of failures and
the thoughts of suicide that will always remind me they were one
staring me in the face. With the people who every day send me hate
mail for reasons IÂ’ll never figure out. Three last night by
the time I woke up this morning. WhatÂ’s the point?
In 2003 my
dad had a stroke. If I hadnÂ’t lost all my money a year or so
earlier I wouldÂ’ve been able to provide him with experimental
medical help he needed. Instead, his insurance ran out and he kept
getting downgraded to worse and worse hospitals. At one point I
felt for sure that he was trying to communicate and with just a
little more therapy he could make it. But the doctors didnÂ’t
believe me. “There’s nothing there,” they said and
pointed at their own heads, supposedly as an example of “there”.
I was convinced
my dad was nodding his head in response to questions. He was trying
to speak. He mouthed the words, “I want to go home”, to
me. He would stare at the giant image of a chessboard I taped to
his ceiling.
There were
experimental programs I couldÂ’ve sent him to. But I didnÂ’t
have any money. So he couldnÂ’t go. So he lay in bed staring
at the ceiling for three years and then he died without ever moving
again.
In terms of
sick kids. ItÂ’s very bad if sick kids canÂ’t get treatment.
Fortunately the State ChildrenÂ’s Health Insurance Program provides
insurance for about six million kids right now whose parents donÂ’t
already qualify for medicaid. And this insurance extends to long-term
chronic illnesses such as cancer.
HereÂ’s a link.
I understand
why the woman is angry at me for not voting. But itÂ’s a good
thing she doesnÂ’t have to be angry at me. I hope her anger
doesnÂ’t motivate who she votes for. When you are angry it becomes
an “us” versus “them” situation. The reality
is, if we want society to work we all have to work together to find
common ground. As corny as it sounds, Love will affect more change,
create more innovation, than Anger ever will.
B) Another
guy, @JohnTMadden wrote, “ @jaltucher Way to respect our flag,
our veterans, and our Constitution James. For a bright man, that
statement was ignorant.”
I get that
one a lot. I donÂ’t like any wars at all. I canÂ’t think
of a single war that can be justified when you look back on it with
the microscope of history. But most importantly, I never approve
of 18 year olds being sent off to be potentially killed. I have
a 13 year old daughter. In five years would I want her to risk her
life in order to protect “my way of life”? Of course not!
IÂ’d rather spend the rest of my life in solitary confinement
than have her risk hers. IÂ’d rather be sent to be burned in
a concentration camp than lay awake for one night worried that she
is risking death for a needless reason.
As far as being
anti-veteran. A) I think they never shouldÂ’ve been veterans
in the first place. B) IÂ’m actively involved in a company that
is desperately attempting to treat post-traumatic stress syndrome
and/or depression for returning veterans and the government is constantly
attempting to squash these sorts of treatments by denying that the
veterans are experiencing any sorts of mental illness at all for
“serving their country”.
The reality
is, we all know now that the war in Iraq was a mistake. There were
no weapons of mass destruction. No Al Quaeda links. And now the
balance of power in the Middle East has been so upset (the tension
between Iraq and Iran held that balance together) that Iraq will
be little more than a colony of Iran. The US historical strategy
is to create tension but not to engage. We ruined that strategy
in the Middle East with our failed attempt at “nation building”
(code for destruction and the slaughter of innocents) and now the
media/government is even contemplating war with Iran, which is even
more of a geographic impossibility than war with Afghanistan has
turned out to be. Look at a map and tell me how troops can get in
there?
October
23, 2012
Copyright
© 2012 The
Altucher Confidential