From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Mar 19 1999 - 10:30:42 MST
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> Failure to vote--to use the only tool the system allows--makes
> one morally complicit in whatever atrocities are committed by
> the government agents you failed to vote against.
On the contrary. The only thing that can make me morally complicit in
*anything* is giving my consent to it. If the government offers me two
candidates, Adolf Hitler and Michael Dukakis, my voting for Dukakis
doesn't make me liable for whatever portion of the national debt he runs
up. Nor does my refusal to vote entirely make me liable for Hitler's actions.
A vote is just the degree of control the government has decided to allow
you over it. It doesn't signify your acquiescence to the actions of the
government. If I'd signed the Constitution, it would, but I didn't, so
it doesn't. If I do my best, through voting, to minimize the national
debt, there is no action on the part of others that can make me morally
liable for what's left. Others have no power over my moral
responsibility; nor can they force me to accept liability by making it
the lesser of two evils. The ONLY thing that can make me liable is my
SPECIFIC CONSENT. The theory of implied consent through ANY action (or
inaction) is hokum.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/AI_design.temp.html
http://pobox.com/~sentience/singul_arity.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.
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