[CS.] "The question is..."

Day 2,889, 15:11 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by Mattio


Dear readers,

Earlier, I asked you guys to vote for either Weekstrom or LORDDEMOS. I did not give any explanation to the election, only the opportunity to vote for either one of them.

The original idea of the vote was to eh… well, there was no original idea actually. Maybe give a cookie to the winner or something, I was just curious what would happen. And as it turns out, quite some things happened actually...




To be honest, I was quite surprised by what happened next and I believe we could learn some lessons from it. Most people just started voting, without questioning the whole election. Some of you did question the vote while at the same time participating…




Others happily took part in the vote without knowing what it was about.




It was only after a few votes that people started asking questions without voting.




Without knowing what they should judge the candidates on, people started making up their own criteria to base their vote on.




At this point, I was kind of pleased with how things went. People were voting in an election they had absolutely no knowledge of, making up their own criteria to chose their preferred candidate. I did not imagine it could get even better.

I expected people to discuss what the vote was about, but I did not expect to see people diving into a speculation with the dedication that I later saw.





I think it’s pretty clear by now that there was no idea behind the election. Weekstrom won, but we can’t say what he won because, honestly, he didn’t win anything so we could just as well say that he did not win, but we’re not in a philosophical mood right now.

Still, there are lessons to be learned. Apparently, we are eager to take part in elections without knowing what they are about, without knowing what we should judge our candidates on and without knowing what is at stake.
What does this say about other elections? In the wake of the previous CP elections, Tonie was accused of not having campaigned. People were uncomfortable with having chosen a CP without knowing what he was up to (this is only partially true, as Tonie did publish some campaign articles but there was no real debate nor a real race, as the two largest parties supported his canddiacy). Was this question for more information a feigned face of honest interest in politics, weren’t we all more interested in whom we liked more?

Whether it’s the CP, PP or Congress elections, we should constantly ask ourselves: why do I vote for this person / party? Do I believe they will do their job well, or do I just like them for their personality? Sometimes, these two considerations go hand in hand, but that’s not always the case.

Be critical, be objective, dare to ask before you do. I leave it with that.

Thank you. I salute,