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Dead Presidents

October 8, 2009

It seems like the Election of the Dead gets started earlier and earlier every election cycle.

If dead communists and socialists aren't your thing, there's now the dead occultist, reputed in life as the "wickedest man in the world" Aleister Crowley:

Aleister Crowley is dead, British, and not running for office. No, we don’t want him as President of the United States of America. We’re not trying to win an election here. We’re trying to send a message. [Aleister Crowley 2012]

The good folks behind Aleister Crowley 2012 seem earnest, with the objective "to promulgate [Crowley's] Law of Liberty." The apathetic anarchist in me is all about liberty, but the question is worth asking: can a message be promulgated through a write-in campaign for a dead guy? Because it's like Guy Debord said, "you cannot combat alienation by means of alienated forms of struggle."

Upon the realization that the electoral process is a sham, voting dies as a means of resistance. Utilizing the process, even if only "to send a message," actually validates the legitimacy of the system being rejected! (Think of the influence, say, "record voter turnout figures," have on the perception of the process. Or a breezy human interest story on the 6:00 news about the festival atmosphere at the polling station where you just wouldn't believe the wacky people you might run into.)

I first advise abstention. Or perhaps the fouling of one's ballot so it cannot be processed, thereby increasing the "undervote" and calling voting mechanisms into question.

The thing is, message promulgation, using means established by The System/The Machine/The Spectacle, (a system fundamentally opposed to the kind of Liberty the Crowley 2012ers propose,) runs the risk of the message being appropriated and reordered to suit the whims of that system.

Nonetheless, (what the hell, right?) In closing, if you simply must vote, why not consider a dead dude? Dead guys aren't superior to your standard political candidates because they're communists, socialists, or occultists. They're superior candidates because they're dead.

And if you simply must vote, for someone alive, consider this guy:

3 Comments leave one →
  1. October 9, 2009 8:28 AM

    He had me until he said he was a Beatles fan. Even in Wonderland, one should always pick the Stones. Plus Crowley had that cool hat.

  2. October 10, 2009 9:04 AM

    Hall-Debs 2012!

  3. October 21, 2009 7:52 AM

    Hall-Debs 2012!
    a morbid-unity ticket.

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