TED Community » Sabina Varga

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  A comment on Conversation: What is your argument for or against "Voter Apathy"?

  Oct 10 2012: This year, for the first time since I've had the right to vote, I decided not to vote.
  
  I've always thought that "People should always vote". I'm from Romania. A few month ago, the Opposition parties tried to suspend the president. Though they followed the procedure for doing so, they arguably broke a few rules on the way. I'm not a supporter of the current president, but I did not agree with the way the Opposition did things. After one and a half mandates (7 years), the current president (Traian Basescu) is far from popular. So chances that he would be suspended were high. Unless the turnaround for the referendum was less than 50%+1 of the electorate, situation in which the whole process would be invalidated and the president would be able to finish his mandate.
  
  Okay, I don't know if you had the patience to follow my story, but, for the first time, I didn't go to vote because I wanted to invalidate a procedure that was, in my opinion, barely legal. Was I right to sabotage the voting process? Arguments can be made either way. (By the way, the referendum was invalidated in the end for lack of quorum)
  
  But my decision to not vote was not apathy, it was a form of protest.
  
  I've also invalidated my votes before when I simply did not want to support any of the candidates.
  
  So should people always vote? I say "Ye" if apathy is the only thing holding them back. Many people died for our freedom to put a stamp on a piece of paper every few years.
  
  And I feel that somewhere in the future people will regret not taking more advantage of their freedom to vote.
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  A comment on Conversation: What motivates you?

  Oct 10 2012: The avoidance of pain or the gain of pleasure :).
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  A comment on Conversation: What is the key to smarter decisions?

  Oct 10 2012: There's really no way of knowing if a decision is better than another. You cannot judge it only by the immediate effect. Any decision you take has long term effects as well. Plus, the cost of opportunity applies. Not only can you not judge the "smartness" of your current decision, but once made, all other possible decisions are lost.
  
  What I'm trying to say is... I don't think there's a way to compare the "smartness" of decisions. You decide what you think it's best at that moment and that's it.