"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
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"How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it..."
Henry did not say it is disgraceful to participate in it, i.e. to take part in it by voting, he said it is disgraceful to be associated with it, i.e. to be connected or joined together with it.
Those not "associated" with it cannot legally "participate" in elections, only "associates", i.e. "accomplices" may legally vote.
complice NOUN: Archaic An associate; an accomplice. ~ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language http://tinyurl.com/2d38bu2
"Readers of Strike The Root recognize that there are two principal demands that their governments make upon them: pay your taxes and vote."
Your government doesn't "demand" that you vote, as this author himself proves in the very next paragraph.
"However, as yet in most nations of the world, failure to vote in government elections carries no penalty."
Your rulers don't REALLY care if you "participate", they only want you to voluntarily continue to be an "associate". If they REALLY gave a sh*t whether you voted, not voting would carry a penalty.
"As Thoreau pointed out, "All voting is a sort of gaming, like chequers or backgammon . . . . Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it.""
And NOT VOTING for the right is doing NOTHING for it, as well.
"How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it..."
"All voting is a sort of gaming [gambling]..." ~ Henry David Thoreau
I am not advocating that the employees of the corporation known as citizens, should vote, I am only saying that it's not important to the parasitic class if their employees don't vote.
Using Henry's "gaming" analogy, if you have voluntarily, albeit unknowingly, entered into a "rigged" poker game, it matters not whether you opt to use your right to cut the deck [vote], because you are certain to lose either way. The only reason the card-cheat [parasite] offers you the "cut" [the "vote"] is to perpetuate the illusion that the game is not rigged, so that all the players don't opt out of the game.
The answer? As I see it, the only way to cut your losses is to "opt out of the game".
Jim Davies was right, when he said, "Quit Government Employ. You'll have to do this eventually, if your job is involved with government at any level, directly or indirectly - so the sooner you exit, the easier it will be." ~ Excerpted from Segment 18 of The Online Freedom Academy http://www.tolfa.us/L18.htm
Governments "employ" citizens. They "pay" them with benefits and privileges. “All governments must have citizens in order to exist (tzo)”, therefore if enough individual citizens secede from it, i.e. "Quit Government Employ", it will die, just as any parasite will die if it does not have a host. It is, IMO, the only peaceful way to “abolish it”.
"The right of self-government rests on the right to withdraw consent from an oppressive government. That is the only really effective restriction on power, in the last analysis." ~ Clyde Wilson, Secession: The Last, Best Bulwark of Our Liberties