Still Counting Huh? Haha, Cute, Now Catch Up

Well everyone has to chime in right? everyone has something to say, about the day, for those abroad, yesterday was NSW State Elections, and yes, in between Red Wine, Pirate Ghost Ships, Technical Analysis and Vampires i did indeed find the time to vote.

As always though, i generally just shake my head at it all, not at the democratic process, no not at all, i am all for that, but rather the double think, that is the voting population.

By that i mean, if you ask, most people, be they blue collar worker, or white collar business executive, the very simple question "Do they care for you, or do they care about re-election" most people will answer, the truth, which is, they care about re-election first, then they care about "you" or "us"

You then ask the next question "With that, do you really see any point, voting outside of the two major parties?" and any sensible person will answer, no, because it simply dilutes the votes and there is generally not enough support for them to form any sort of government, so you are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils.

Those two simple questions, and those two simple, very common answers, are understood and expressed, by pretty much every reasonable person i have ever met, no matter their walk of life, ethnicity or political leanings.

Yet as much as that may be true, every election, state or federal, for ... time immemorial, we do the same thing, again, and again and again...

And i cant help but wonder why, specifically why, this never seems to concern people as much as it does me.

I have not been politically vocal for some time, over a decade in-fact, however one key point i always used to mention was that if you have two major parties, whos views, may differ on certain critical points, but otherwise, are fundamentally similar, are you really voting for direction? or are you simply voting for a change of dot points on the same piece of paper?

Its something to consider, thats all, something to consider.

And its important to consider, when you understand winning an election, has more to do with appearance and manipulation of the press, to sway sentiment.

They will bombard you with discussions on Healthcare, get you all fired up about reduced opal card rates, talk about some road they are going to build that might be a good thing in some indeterminate point of time in the future, and there will of course be some scandal when they catch the other party saying some "random thing" and blow it way out of context to suit their campaign.

Happens, all the time, in fact, it happens, in pretty much every western democratic country.

And the reason its so effective, is because, democracy, and the voting process, is in and of its design, geared towards an informed, educated public.

Now this is not to say any of you reading this are not educated, i mean no offence by that, but i presume, you get your information from the usual sources, major television news outlets, pamphlets, mainstream radio, and the parties themselves.

All of these are both tinted, and tailored, to Achieve a result.

This, was not necessarily the case in the past, where people had a much more, un-biased understanding of the parties, motives and the players involved.

In the middle of writing this, i had to pause, to go and purchase a packet of cigarettes, and i mentioned to the shopkeeper "well it looks as if labour has won our electorate" (Which is a very good thing for my particular electorate i may add) and they replied "yeah, i don't really know to much about it, i just thought she looked nice" and i laughed, and left.

How many people voted, or vote that way? how many, payed perhaps no attention to the political cycle over the past 4 years, and in the past week, heard a snippet, or saw something from either party and thought "right, i have to make a decision on Saturday, and i saw this thing on the news on Wednesday from that guy, and it sounded alright to me, so i guess ill vote that"

Probably quite a few i hazard a guess, and while this compounds the issue, the alternative, if they had delved into it all, would come away stating "far out, they are both as bad as each other, now i have to make a strategic choice between people i don't even really want representing me"

And its back and forth between these two spectrum's, people that know nothing, are manipulated, and those that look into it, generally become disillusioned.

And one or the either will get in, and things will remain ultimately pretty much the same, save for a few variations here and there, with no mind to any real long term strategies.

They will spend the next 4 years, arguing over 2d Road Systems, Housing, Healthcare, Tax Rebates and Cuts to either the upper or lower class, perhaps the occasional mention of marginally attempting to increase jobs or wages but beyond that and of course the ever popular political football of education.

I turn myself and say, those are all good things to work on kind sir's thats the basics, thats keeping your house in order, but what about beyond this?

And most of them stare blankly and think "beyond this?"

And i pause and think "a huh, ok so you have no ideas"

Because their ideas, are generally, to keep the status quo, its the game of politics, these are the things you debate and focus on, and everything else is irrelevant, until there is some massive sway of interest by the general population underneath, and when their is, that becomes your political ticket for the moment.

Now to pull it back? Do both parties do good things, yes, yes they do, bang up job guys and gals, well done, but don't think for a moment i am not aware of why you did half the things you have done, please, don't insult me.

And in another 4 years? will you not do the same thing again? bet you will, and i bet you will still be talking about the same things, and the public will still react the same way.

Meanwhile, me and my lot will be focusing on decentralized currencies, governance, infrastructure, a totally decentralized internet unchained from traditional ISP's via satellite technology from a new commercial space industry, the halving will have come and gone, there will have been another bull run and we will probably be in another bear market, millionaires will have been made and probably already pouring investment dollars into your traditional economy and you still ...

Wont have paid any attention to us at all, or even thought about it, and perhaps in another 8 years, when all these things are connected to the everyday life, and you find yourself using them, you will think "huh .... wow, we need to get on this" and at that point you will be about 10 years to late, pandora's box will be open forever, and the primary media source, that of the internet, will be totally, outside of your control, and influence forever meaning...

There can once again, be some independent, critical analysis of political activity, from ... everybody.

At which point, perhaps, and i do hope, we can see the return of the educated voter, instead of the marketing & sales job, that unfortunately, our democratic system has become.

You have no idea what is coming, but i do, its been coming for a long time, since the 9th of March, 1993 actually, Cypherpunk Manifesto, some suggested light reading, but with it, and with everything that is happening now, will build an infrastructure, that will give true power, back to the individual.

Your still counting votes? we would have had that verified and counted in under an hour.

See you in 4 years :) I will be watching with great interest.