IlikeitIdonotlikeit

We continually make choices, but many things that affect us depend directly or indirectly on the choices of others. Through a ballot paper it is possible to change the rules of daily behaviour and our own existence in a way that we would not have wanted or wished for, and naturally we do the same with the existence of other individuals ¬most of whom we don’t know and have no wish to know ¬by choosing differently. Despite the significance our gesture bears, we do not consider ourselves responsible for those who have different opinions to ours, and we tend to create ideal communities with those who we consider, rightly or wrongly, similar to ourselves. All political powers have been built, to varying degrees, on this very human propensity to create antagonistic communities. In modern democracy, particularly where there are only two large coalitions contending for leadership, a possible dangerous inconvenience is paralysis. The legislative and power void that occurs when balance between both sides is perfectly equal - rendering the voter’s strength useless, when disappointment with politics and their representatives often pushes them to abstain. For this reason one vote more, or one less, can decide the future of a nation, of a people, it can determine the success of a coalition or the defeat of another. Stripped of its content, the act through which the voters’ choice is expressed is identical to itself in the multiplicity of gestures that make it happen. The purity of this gesture has to be safeguarded and preserved. Any manipulation of the vote, as with any betrayal of the mandate it presupposes, is of the same unprecedented gravity as damaging a child’s trust, which is also based on a natural instinctive generosity. If the line separating victory from defeat depends on a single vote, it is obvious that the competing parties with the most chance of gaining power propose almost identical programmes and objectives to the electorate. They put across an image that is barely distinguishable from their adversary. Only smaller political parties with apparently nothing to lose can allow themselves the luxury of exhibiting radically different and original leanings. But however much the political forces are inclined to converge and resemble one another, what all voting has in common - also that decisive for victory or defeat ¬is not the content of the opinion that is expressed. What is essential to voting is not what, or for which banner, you vote, but the gesture itself and its gift-like quality; a free and generous action. From this point of view it must be considered a political error - the naivety of which is equal only to its benefit ¬to resort to strategies that aim to place voters one against the other, fostering incomprehension in the best of cases, violence and mutual hatred in the worst. Considering the content of the vote secondary, and respect for the voters, any voter, the most important thing to keep in mind, is on the other hand an indication of unequivocal superior awareness. Starting with the voter in person, even before political figures.