Rhinocrisy

I had intended a more interesting (I thought) rant today, but this one popped into my head, and so I’ll entertain you (my nonexistent readership) with it while I mull over the former. (Honestly, I must stop with these expository introductions… highly distracting, don’t you think? Next time, I’ll just launch into the thing…)

Yesterday I was walking my bike home after getting my freewheel mechanism removed at Broadway Bikes, and I happened past a bit of tastefully done sidewalk graffiti. It was visually inoffensive, done in pastel sidewalk chalk with round, friendly letters, and it read, “Please Vote”. I was immediately gripped by a sudden, convulsive urge to find some chalk and write a response. I began composing text in my head: “Please provide me a candidate worth voting for,” “Please reform the electoral process,” or maybe simply inserting “don’t” between the two words. But, no, it would have taken a dissertation, and there wasn’t enough space on the sidewalk. Besides, on the next block I found it again, “Please Vote”, and I was hardly going to write out my dissertation twice.

It’s such a simple appeal: two words, but the subtext is absolutely clear. It’s important for you, a Citizen of these United States, to Participate in the Democratic Process, because that’s What Makes This Country Good (Great?). But, my God, I thought (drawing from the deep well of cynicism within me) can people really believe that anymore? Hasn’t the notion that politicians are a worthless breed - the spawn of vipers, all of them - universally penetrated our culture yet? Are there still pockets of hope and naïveté that believe otherwise?

And then - my God, is democracy dead? And still further - did it ever exist in the first place?

But surely that’s too cynical a position, even for me. No matter how corrupt it is, democracy is real; we have an effect on our public institutions. Our vote is a rein holding rampant abuse of power in check. Maybe it moulders and decays; maybe we, in turn, are more and more puppets, and the reins have been made to go slack. But it’s still real… isn’t it?

Posted on Monday, July 12th, 2004 at 4:13 pm | Uncategorized | feed | reply | trackback