For (fictional?) simplicity, take a general election where the upper echelon gives you two corporate sanctioned products to pick from. An elephant or a donkey. 

Case 1: donkey
donkey: 1
elephant: 0

Case 2: elephant
donkey: 0
elephant: 1

Case 3: no vote (or a write-in)
donkey: 0
elephant: 0
(mystery animal: 0/1)

[download]

3 distinct outcomes. If not voting didn't do anything, you'd have two. Also, if you vote for some goon to tell everyone what to do just because said goon is the best option, what this person does becomes your fault. Not voting, especially in a majority, hints at discontent, and hopefully entropy- our next great opportunity.

In reply to Re^7: blaming perl for not using a build policy (not voting != voting) by Zen
in thread blaming perl for not using a build policy by trwww

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