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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

I just ran across this short piece about voting.  I have read some of 
LeFevre's commentary before, he has a strange libertarian mix of thought 
including strict pacifism.  I don't agree with the conclusion of the 
commentary below any more than I agree with strict pacifism, but he is 
smarter and writes better than me ... bobford

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Abstain From Beans

By Robert LeFevre — (1911 - 1986)

In ancient Athens, those who admired the Stoic philosophy of individualism 
took as their motto: “Abstain from Beans.” The phrase had a precise 
reference. It meant: don’t vote. Balloting in Athens occurred by dropping 
various colored beans into a receptacle.

To vote is to express a preference. There is nothing implicitly evil in 
choosing. All of us in the ordinary course of our daily lives vote for or 
against dozens of products and services. When we vote for (buy) any good or 
service, it follows that by salutary neglect we vote against the goods or 
services we do not choose to buy. The great merit of market place choosing is 
that no one is bound by any other persons selection. I may choose Brand X. 
But this cannot prevent you from choosing Brand Y.

When we place voting into the framework of politics, however, a major change 
occurs. When we express a preference politically, we do so precisely because 
we intend to bind others to our will. Political voting is the legal method we 
have adopted and extolled for obtaining monopolies of power. Political voting 
is nothing more than the assumption that might makes right. There is a 
presumption that any decision wanted by the majority of those expressing a 
preference must be desirable, and the inference even goes so far as to 
presume that anyone who differs from a majority view is wrong or possibly 
immoral.

But history shows repeatedly the madness of crowds and the irrationality of 
majorities. The only conceivable merit relating to majority rule lies in the 
fact that if we obtain monopoly decisions by this process, we will coerce 
fewer persons than if we permit the minority to coerce the majority. But 
implicit in all political voting is the necessity to coerce some so that all 
are controlled. The direction taken by the control is academic. Control as a 
monopoly in the hands of the state is basic.

In times such as these, it is incumbent upon free men to reexamine their most 
cherished, long-established beliefs. There is only one truly moral position 
for an honest person to take. He must refrain from coercing his fellows. This 
means that he should refuse to participate in the process by means of which 
some men obtain power over others. If you value your right to life, liberty, 
and property, then clearly there is every reason to refrain from 
participating in a process that is calculated to remove the life, liberty, or 
property from any other person. Voting is the method for obtaining legal 
power to coerce others.