The Pagan Cult of Voting

by Angelo Mike 

Exclusive to STR

November 16, 2006

I was in a campus economics meeting in which I was given an opportunity recently to speak about any books I had been reading on the subject, and mentioned Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Democracy: The God That Failed. Since I was not a speaker at the meeting, but merely a guest, I very briefly outlined Hoppe’s anarcho-capitalist position and his examination of the economics of monarchy and democracy, explaining that there tends to be a moderating influence on a monarch’s power along with his ability to pocket the capital value of his government.  

I got at least one bug-eyed look from a professor who seemed shocked that I was depredating democracy as compared to monarchy, followed by some hostility from another economics professor who pointed out the abuses of power under Egyptian pharaohs and slave drivers.  

We ended up discussing after the meeting the theory of why monarchy is superior to democracy, in which he bitterly denounced monarchy (just as I mentioned is part of Hoppe’s argument that monarchy is still deficient and an abuse, but the professor couldn’t stand my assault on democracy) as dictatorial and provided several examples, as well as criticizing monarchy for imposing a state religion.  

While I couldn’t elaborate without being interrupted, I responded by saying that democracy’s provided nothing better. We just have a state religion which is that of democracy itself: Religion with a fallible god, that of the majority.  

As an anarcho-capitalist, I’ve believed this for a while. However, last week’s elections were the first ones I experienced as an anarchist, and despite not voting (and even trying to un-register to vote, though no one in the government responded to my request), I was fully immersed in the religion of democracy.  

Booths to attract attention for Virginia candidates George Allen and Jim Webb were on campus and around the city. A group of girls were standing by the metro stop, handing out information on why to vote for Jim Webb. As I passed them by and told them that I don’t vote, they told me like a fire and brimstone street preacher, “It’s people like you that got George Bush elected!”  

And I’ve got to hand it to them. To that end they don’t make a bad case.  

But there they stood, asking God to have mercy on our souls if we don’t vote to get a good candidate to use the police power to force his ideas onto everyone else.  

Among all the times I’ve been asked by classmates if I voted, I keep hearing the mantra that it’s a “civic duty,” as a Republican running a booth to support George Allen told me when I asked that she make a case to support democracy. After all, proselytizing for the state means shaming those who don’t aid and abet it.  

People have been walking around wearing “I Voted” stickers, like Catholics with ashes on their forehead for this most holy of all days around which we all gather in fellowship.  

And they’re even getting children. Good to get them while they’re young! Kids in public schools are being taught how to improve and expedite the democratic process, for they have so much to be grateful for in democracy. And America is the true democracy; Iran , Palestine , or other democracies in which we don’t like which politicians are chosen aren’t.  

A children’s news show, Nick News, was reminiscent of Chinese propaganda last week.  The host, Linda Ellerbee, spent the show asking children why political debate in this country is so ugly, and what can be done to help it in this glorious system of democracy for which we should be grateful. One can almost imagine the government producing shows like this, with children chanting questions about how to possibly help this system of democracy, which is constantly under siege from hippies, foreigners, and anarchists.  

“Teacher, how can I make this nation better as I grow older?”  

Morality being (quite logically from the state’s perspective) something to usurp towards itself, it must be removed from the spheres of cultural, familial and religious norms.  It must become state morality. And thus, all the things people forbid of themselves to do out of decency and morality, the state religion compels.