Word of the day: Abstention

In case you haven't heard there is an election on September 4th (this Tuesday) in Quebec. I must confess that I am still undecided as to what course of action I will embark on in the voting booth. Unlike most undecided voters in Quebec who are debating as to which party to vote for, I'm having a quite different debate; should I go vote if I do not support any party on the ballot?  My first phrase presupposes I will be in a voting booth on the 4th. Maybe I shouldn't take that for granted just yet- the question is more: 'will I even show up'? I generally think of my political action within the realm of something like Aristotle's definition of  a virtuous action.  He has three of his conditions for such an action: knowledge of events at hand is necessary, the act must be a freely chosen act, and an action must proceed from a firm and unchangeable character. If  I am going to follow Aristotle's definition, the answer is plainly: do not vote.

It seems to follow that one can make a distinction between virtuous and non-virtuous voting. The crucial criterion I would use here is that in order for an action to be virtuous it has to be made on the firm basis of ones character. If applying this principle to the upcoming election, it would be unvirtuous (yes, this is actually a word) for me to vote for a party on September 4th; there is nothing in my 'character' that supports the potential parties; The PLQ has disgraced itself over the last few months by using violence as a response to healthy political outrage, the PQ is very nationalistic in a masturbatory way (it wants to increase the research and teaching of history as a means of making Quebec adequately proud of what it has done- fix your gaze on the future perhaps?), The QS has good ideals but seems to be ultimately composed of these alone (not enough clarity in relation to the whether their ideas fulfil the implementability criterion (not in Aristotle) -their ideas may sounds nice, but do they work?), The CAQ (yep...that's what it sounds like) is a hardcore right wing party committed to destroying Quebec's intellectual culture, Option Nationale lives up to its name (essentially the PQ with less muscle). Oof...let me catch my breath. That leaves us with...the Marxist-Leninists... or was it the Leninists-Marxists.

And what about voting unvirtuously ? I'd say that this action presupposes either some sort of value in a utilitarian voting strategy, or a view of voting as being, to a degree, some sort of sacred act. In terms of the latter: why else would someone do an action with no actual value unless they added value to it? And in regards to the former: while there are people who see an intrinsic value in voting because of the 'value' of participating in a democratic state (refer to the 'Vote or Die' culture, or even the South Park episode about this) or because of the potential good effects that arise out of having your vote count, I would beg to differ. There are pertinent psychologism involved here that I actually think are harmful to society; democracy should stand unquestioned, citizens of a state should settle in order to perpetuate the status-quo, and lastly that we should succumb to the blissful ignorance of group think. 

Is there a virtue in abstention?

This discussion will be continue until the 4th. Stay tuned!