Democracy et al

Voting was a very undramatic experience. It took only two minutes of being surrounded by sweaty faces, indulgently smiling at me as though I was some idiot (perhaps with good reason, since I thought the fake voting machine was the real thing and panicked when I couldn't find my candidate there). A beep and unphotogenically blotchy index finger later, the much hyped adult-citizen "right" had been exercised and done with.

But, as one friend put it on Facebook, I felt "all empowered".

I'm not going to mention who I voted for, but I guess it's pretty clear who I didn't vote for. The party whose agenda is Criticise the Government and Hypothesise Success. For instance, this line from one of their ad campaigns: "If the government had done its job, I wouldn't have lost mine." I mean, how, how? The recession is bigger than us. Unless you plan to cut off chunks from your salary for distribution and recruit them all as PAs? 

And the hoo-haa over the no-vote option is something I really don't get. What, really, are those who wish to exercise it trying to prove? That they've done their duty by getting their finger inked? There's going to be a government whether we like it or not, so isn't it better to contribute to its selection rather than expressing disdain by choosing to abstain? (Ooh, that rhymes.) Unless someone's willing to make a real change, like, let's say, contesting the election yourself.