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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Why do people not vote?

Because the two party system has failed the citizens of the US. The common man is no longer represented and the politicians do not need him to gain power. Both parties are bought and paid for by business, the military industrial complex as well liberal and conservative special interest groups that are well funded and can push their agendas.
Most recent elections have been won by candidates who had the most money and resources advertise. Much of this advertising is used to point out real or fictional flaws of the other candidates and their message. Which begs the question why would anyone vote for a candidate that they know nothing about? Because these political ads provide very little real information on what the candidate stands for or will do, we are left to make choice based on the same information we use choose commercial brand names from cars to blue jeans, slick advertising. People will respond to the must appealing message. Whether the message is the truth is of very little consequence to the candidate because unlike consumers, voters have very little recourse if the elected candidates actions do not match the campaign ads. Until the candidates term expires in two, four, or even six years. Incumbent elected officials do not fear reelection because once in office they are able to consolidate power and garner massive resources to all but guarantee another term. Term limitations at the federal, state and. local have helped with choice but as long as we only really have two political parties, elected officials tend to be able to replace themselves with clones belonging to the same political affiliation.
Many people vote, but become skeptical of the whole process, when their chosen candidate is found to be less than genuine. The political parties foster this because a large voter turn is a threat to incumbency, allowing the other party to gain power. Without any viable third party candidate to vote for the simple choice is "choose not to choose", which further divides and conquers the electorate. If this disenfranchised voter does become a none voter they will fall into the "the lesser of two evils" category. Voting for the candidate that is the least distasteful. The single voter has no real power in this political duality because while a candidate may claim that they have the best interests of the citizenry, they often only have the best interest of those entities that provide them resources to stay in power.

Why today's parents are more cautious when sending their children out to play?

Why can't my kids play by themselves in our neighborhood the way I did when I was a kid?

Webb Smith, Amateur Philosopher
Parents in today's society are much more fearful of the hazards that are outside our doors. The reasons for this fear is twofold. The first reason is mass media proliferation. The second is the breakdown of internal societal authorities like the church, schools and organizations that closely regulated and controlled behaviors of individuals.

Over then past 25 years or so news media effect on the societies' psyche has increased exponentially. Today's parents are much more cautious than their parent's generation, when deciding on how much unsupervised activities they allow their children to engage in, outside the home. This abundance of mass media has brought to light several heinous crimes like kidnapping and murder etc. against children playing outside their home unsupervised. These crimes, of course, happened in past but parents were not as informed about their occurrence. This lack of information allowed parents to feel more secure and be less cautious when granting their children freedom to play in thhe neighborhood.

Today, there probably isn't a larger number of sociopaths that would perpetrate these heinous crimes on children. However, with the breakdown of traditional societal structures these dangerous individuals are no longer kept in check, leading to the occurrence of greater numbers of these crimes. Presumably, past generations of sociopathsm and criminals may have been influenced by the moral teaching of the church, more fearful of the criminal justice system and quite posibly more fearful of societal organizations like a white collar criminal syndicate. These structures were more able to inflict punishment for transgressions perpretrated, especially on children. This punishment may have lead some to keep themselves in check. If they didn't the societal structures could inflict harsh consequences. It possible that an organization like a crime syndicate might have been empowered to dispose of any individual who might have committed these especially brutal crimes against the most vulnerable of society.

In summation there is not more sociopaths in today's society, just more information about about their crimes. Though the number of these individuals hasn't increased in the past 50 years, it possible that the number of crimes committed has increased due to the decrease in societal reguators. It is these two factors that have made this generation of parents cautious and protective when it comes to alowing their children autonomy while playing outside the home.

What is "Why that's the way it is"?

What is "Why"? This blog is way for its author to express,document, and preserve answers to questions that the author asked over the course of the last several years. The answers are based essentially on opinions, research, experiences and other tidbits of knowledge and information the author has picked up on this journey of life. The answers are based the author's understanding of the questions and they may not be scientifically proven or foolproof and will often be onlyopinions. They are simply answers, from the author's perception of reality and what is seen through his lense as the human condition and the world we live in. The questions can will be but are not limited to politics, economics, history, psychology, sociology, and any other question that begs for an answer that helps the author explain why that the way it is. While this blog was developed for the author to explain the compelling questions that have puzzled him over the years. He would not be intellectually honest if he did not more than welcome comments and differing opinions and answers. So I invite all who are interested in answering why to join and try to make some sense world we live in.