When I say that not voting is a personal statement of my own authenticity, I mean that it allows me to be a more authentic person. I believe that each of us exists, for the most part, in what Martin Heidegger calls a state of “average everydayness.” We tend to live as an inauthentic “they-self” which is based on our perception of what “the other(s)” think and believe. We engage in idle talk, become tranquilized and distracted, and exist every day in the averageness of the they. We believe what other people believe, think what others think, and we tend to behave how others behave. By not voting I am refusing to “go along with the crowd,” so to speak.

¶ 11:33 PM