Thursday, 10 March 2011

We have no right to vote

The danger of democracy is that people seek to immunise their actions from prosecution, we seek to make something which is normally illegal, tolerated by the courts. In normal criminal justice until the crime is perpetrated, nothing happens. Under democracy people try to make sure that what they plan to do will not be punished by the courts beforehand. But there is no special case for the government. If someone has done a crime (and you seek to retaliate) then there is no requirement to seek the permission of the courts beforehand, you should just do what you plan to do anyway. Democracy gives permission (from the people) to the state to be aggressive. It is not a crime for ordinary people to take an opinion poll but the state is different and to remove it (elections) would be to expose the difference between the state and an ordinary citizen, in legal terms.

If democracy is by definition a mechanism whereby the state seeks permission for its actions (and is not merely an opinion poll) then we can say that it makes no difference that a government is popular with the electorate, we still reject the violence. It is still wrong to persecute a minority even if we have been given permission to do so by the majority. A crime is still a crime even if other people don't mind. No one should be allowed to vote.

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