Election Day can be depressing for voluntaryists/anarchists who see voting as legitimizing the coercive force of monopoly violence that is government.

Tomorrow you'll still be the most important agent of your life.

I think voting as a concept is great for determining majority consensus. I think it's terrible for determining how you, as an individual, should be forced via the threat of violence to financially support actions which you morally disagree with such as war, theft, and unnatural monopoly creation. As I sit here drinking various mixed Vodka drinks and see the anger, hatred, and fear displayed on social media over why "their" candidate isn't winning or why the "other" candidate is literally hitler or the spawn of satan, I have to just sigh and take another sip to ease the frustration.

I didn't vote today.

I can't bring myself to condone a process which will tell hundreds of millions of people who their "leader" is, even though they need no leader at all. They need to lead themselves. They need to engage in voluntary interactions to benefit themselves, their families, and their communities.

Tonight, I did something more valuable than voting. I played a game of Fruit Ninja on my phone with my 7 year old son. I engaged with him, loved on him, and gave him a positive memory. It's moments like this where I have to remind myself the children really are the only hope to end this cycle of oppression where millions of people fall back on their (often violent) childhood programming and look to a mommy or daddy authority figure to make all their problems go away. I can only hope my children will learn the lesson we're so desperately trying to teach via peaceful parenting that violence (the initiation of force) is never a valid action. Yes, defensive force may be required, but never offensive action. Might does not make right as we evolve past our primitive ancestors towards a cooperative species who values well-being, connectedness, love, and voluntary interactions.

Voting simply means, "I can make the guys with guns do what I want them to do, even if you disagree." Every government law is backed by violent, deadly force. Surely we can devise better mechanisms today for peaceful coexistence. I strongly believe future generations will look back at us as primitive savages who used the threat of force instead of reason, logic, evidence, and connected, shared empathy and compassion.

We can do better than this. It starts with not playing the rigged game and demanding more of ourselves. Don't let propaganda and from-birth programming coerce you into compromising your moral values. Deep down, most people realize it's wrong to force others to do things against their own moral judgement. When we interact with our family, our friends, our neighbors, our community members, we don't use violence or coercion. Let's not delegate that to others either.

Yes, this is a rant. Yes, I've been drinking a bit, and I'm a little sad at the state of humanity today. At the same time, I'm hopeful for the future. I'm hopeful that we can indeed evolve as a species towards cooperation, understanding, and connected shared interests. Technology can bring us together like never before. Good ideas don't require force.

Thanks, Steemit. As much as we might not agree at times, at least we interact peacefully without physical violence.