@chula
yea, from a collectivist mentality, voting makes sense. the problem is america is a more individualistic country. the terms collectivism vs individualism i take from my intro to psychology and communications courses. basically collectivist traits in a society are traits in which the people in that society all work together towards a common goal. ie they sacrifice some of their own interests for the sake of a greater good. they act as a single organized entity rather than as individual agents. or at least that is the ideal.
this idea of collectivism can be demonstrated in its most pure form in nature as collective swarm intelligence of ant colonies, in which ants collectively make decisions as a group for the sake of the colony rather than each individual ant having its own interests.
this works for them because their genetic lineage happens to run directly through the queen. so the entire colony exists as an extension of the queen's reproductive ambitions. there's no other ants in the colony which are reproducing because that would undermine the entire operation of the colony which is on a single mission to extend the queen's genetic lineage.
in humans, it's much more dialed down. but the idea of collectivist vs individualist tendencies in a society can be demonstrated by looking at the idea of social loafing. social loafing basically = the tendency to slack off when you're in a group more often than when you're by yourself because any rewards or failures that the group might obtain will be distributed amongst the group. so in an individualist society there's less incentive for you to work really hard in a group as opposed to working really hard on your own personal project because you are strategizing from the pov of the individual.
it was assumed that social loafing was basically universal until they tried doing the same studies in some different parts of the world where there is a more collectivist mind state. in these cases they found that people had the tendency to work even harder when they were part of a group because the society that they live in psychologically reinforces a sort of collectivist mentality. of course, not nearly to the same extent as ants. humans can be collectivist only to a certain extent. when it is more beneficial for them to act as a group, they do so.
but in the united states, individualism is the predominant mentality. and from each individual's perspective, voting makes very little if any noticeable difference. yea, there are close races in certain swing states. and if you happen to live in that swing state and happen to be really enthusiastic about the success of one particular politician or policy, it might make sense to vote. but for the vast majority of people their lives are hardly at all being governed by their voting patterns. it's just an elaborate distraction, is all.
as for al gore... 9/11 would still have happened, most likely, and we still would've been engaged in a military campaign in afghanistan. would al gore take out saddam? who knows.. i mean lets not pretend like clinton wasn't gunning for saddam as well. the guy was considered a threat since the first gulf war, hence the decade of sanctions which continued under clinton and also starved hundreds of thousands of iraqis.
the main problem with liberals and their anti-war **** is that they don't understand basic geopolitics. the success and wealth of the united states was born out of ww2, we emerged as the number 1 military superpower and we took control of all the world's oceans. it will always be in the best interests of the united states that no other serious power rise to challenge it. this geopolitical strategy has been continued by obama as well, to the best of his abilities. and it would be pursued by any other country that happened to find themselves in such good fortune. such has been the way of the world since way back.
with ww1/ww2, down came the european global empires and up came the american/russian empires. then eventually there was only 1. and this is only due to our investment in maintaining military supremacy. whether people like it or not, that is the way **** goes and has gone for the past ~10,000 years of civilization.
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