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Democracy sounds like a good idea in a high school civics class. But put into action, it quickly becomes a systematized contradiction. The average voter is a mixed-up ball of passionate outrage and self-centered indifference. He gives fleeting attention to the hot topics on the nightly news, and promptly forgets about them. He demands from his government rep a slew of state benefits while complaining about the taxes that pay for them. He wants to be kept safe, even as he moans about the uniformed ruffians who rummage through his belongings at the airport.

Forcing people to vote is a recipe for disaster. Democracy is inherently myopic because voters themselves rarely think far into the future. Each generation sells its children down the drain for immediate convenience. One person, one vote isn”€™t an equitable means of establishing the will of the people; it’s a mass plundering by one group of another. The fruits of democracy don”€™t justify themselves. If anything, they prove the need for restricting suffrage to those with a real, vested interest in the tax handouts they pay for.

In a more general sense, compulsory voting is malicious because it forces people to pay attention to politics”€”the most vapid and depraved industry ever formulated by humans. Politics is a profession for neurotic know-it-alls who think they can save the world by whining endlessly and keeping up with Politico. There is no spiritual satisfaction in the art of the possible. Politics, and government in general, leaves men empty and unfulfilled. By its very nature, politicking involves constant anxiety over what others are doing. It allows for no rest, no holiday, and no tuning out. Political junkies are addicted to the news cycle. They get high on gaffes and their opponents”€™ misery. That’s why the industry is a magnet for soulless twits who never tire of hearing themselves speak.

Should compulsory voting become law in Canada, it will further boost the egos of the political class, a group that, by any measure of common sense, deserves to rot in jail. Additionally, it would speed up the process by which, as John Adams predicted, democracy eats itself. And perhaps that wouldn”€™t be the worst outcome.