It’s a strange phenomenon to observe that people my age, who were usually apathetic, get so excited over Singapore’s elections this year. Perhaps it is true that election have become more exciting, with much more competition than before between the opposition parties and the incumbent, but this argument ignores the problem that a single vote almost definitely makes little to no difference to the overall results.

Out of the entire population in Singapore, 2,311,582 people are eligible for voting in the 27 constituencies available. That rounds off to maybe 85,600 votes determining the outcome of any one district election. The fact is that the chance of your vote changing the fate of either the PAP or the opposition in that one district is about 0.001%, let alone whether it will ascertain if the PAP loses its status as the incumbent party. The chances of any one vote making a significant difference has about as much probability of anyone winning a lottery. This is sufficient to prove that the vote, on an individual scale, makes no difference at all. (Imagine the situation in, say, India?)

Why then do people vote if their vote has negligible meaning to it? I believe that the act of voting, and people’s rationale for doing so, boils down to two social phenomena. It is both a social ritual and a social delusion by the state.

It seems to me that the vote as a ritual is an affirmation of the coming-to-age, as well as an affirmation of citizenship to the country. The importance of the “coming-of-age” as a social celebration should not be underestimated: people congratulate friends for their twenty-first birthday as though it is uniquely different from other birthdays. Meeting this boundary is supposed to be a major landmark in your life, since it legally allows you to watch R21 shows, as well as to vote. More importantly, this boundary marks the final restriction that separates teenagers from adults, the first being 16 (consensual sex, NC16 shows) and 18 (drinking, driving). The 21st birthday is hence the social age of adulthood, and voting is an affirmation of that status. As to voting as an affirmation of citizenship, perhaps that is true especially in the post-colonial era, when people succeeded in winning independence from the British. For the first time, they were able to vote, to choose the government that are made up of their own people, instead of being led by foreigners. However, it is my opinion that the former has grown significantly in importance as compared to the latter. An affirmation of citizenship is theoretically more plausible an explanation of the vote only when nationalism is the ideological trend in the country. As time goes by and the new generation of citizens takes over who did not have to fight for their citizenship, “affirmation of citizensip” reduces in importance as compared to “affirmation of coming-of-age”. This implies that the collective meaning of the vote changes over time, which this argument has perhaps inductively proved.

It is a necessary condition that a successful democracy must ensure that its population believes that the vote matters, since a democracy in which no one believes in voting will inevitably fails by definition. The state has two powers by which it may ensure votes from the populace: by enforcing the vote by law, and by making full use of rhetoric. The former requires no discussion. However, the latter is a much more interesting issue to discuss. The power of rhetoric is extremely important in swaying votes in any democracy. Witness, for example, Barack Obama’s successful campaigning that led to a landslide victory for his party. For an older example, Pericles of Athens dominated Athenian politics for thirty years by his sheer force of presence, to the point that Athens then was known as Periclean Athens, even though Athens features perhaps the most authentically democratic system in history. Rhetoric is a powerful tool to persuade, to sway their minds to the cause of the rhetorician, either through actions or speech. Even today, in an age when most do not actually hear or see rhetoric in first person, the effect trickles down by hearsay and rumours. Perhaps third parties such as online forums and newspapers and friends contribute by amplifying this trickle-down effect of rhetoric. Ultimately, people vote for the parties they feel they want to vote for, and it is very rarely a rational decision. Moreover, I am of the opinion that people who vote “rationally” actually reason in favour of their prejudiced choices. People who are swayed by the rhetoric of any one party into voting for them implicitly accepts that voting matters, which plays directly into the needs of the state as a whole. All who want to vote are deluded by the state, through rhetoric, into believing that their vote matters. When it has such a high probability that it does not, then this belief is as good as faith.

It seems clear that the only people who do not believe that votes matter are those who are forced to vote by law, and even then, they vote based on what rhetoric they hear of by happenstance. There are no non-prejudiced voters: in the vote, all are forced to take sides, unless one wishes to forfeit the possibility of voting in the future, by not voting at all. However, most people do vote, and very willingly too. I contend that it is a combination of “vote as ritual” and rhetoric that predisposes people towards voting, and subsequently becoming an underlying basis for any possible interest in elections. As an unexamined prejudice, it is then justified post-hoc by the illusion that the individual vote matters.

Disclaimer: The author is providing an explanatory theory, but not a normative theory about voting. The author is not saying that one should not vote, but rather arguing that the voting mentality is based on the illusion that votes are significant. He is part of the Aljunied GRC, and is voting because he is forced to, and because he dislikes PAP and just happens to like a speech of Sylvia Lim’s.
04:26
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A system of thought, like a house with brick and mortar, has a foundation and a superstructure. It is the superstructure which attracts more attention, applause or censure. The foundation remains unnoticed. Yet it is the foundation which hides the secret sources of nourishment of the entire structure. This foundation consists of a group of basic concepts and assumptions which the thinker brings into play. The greatness of a thinker lies in the originality and strength of these concepts and assumptions. The mediocre build on nothing new.

- J. N. Mohanty
01:24
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Title: A Celebration of Reason
Speech by Williams, a leading Rationalist intellectual. Year 2324AD.

“We gather here, my dear friends, to celebrate life. Now, before the festivities commence, let us question what life essentially is. Just what we are celebrating here tonight?

“Look at those poor artists, poets, musicians and mystics! ‘Oh, what joy life is! Each day brings so much excitement that it is worth living! Each morning, when one beholds the glory of the rising sun, the sight of it will bring tears to the eyes, the beauty of it does move us so!’ So says the sentimentalists, but we all know what unfortunate, uncertain and fickle creatures they are. If emotions are the sole basis of a worthy life, then life will clearly lack foundation, for emotions change so rapidly! Such is the stupendous illogicality of their enterprise!

“Enough of these emotions! Begone with them! Friends: my fellow scientists, technicians, rationalists, philosophers – we are true humans! Without our reasoned foundations, life has no value, no meaning. Where can there be certainty and constancy without the use of reason? Only in science and mathematics do we see eternal, empirical, and undoubtedly true principles, devoid of the mysticism and illogicality of religion, and the indecisiveness of flighty emotions! This is what life ought to be centred around – truth, and nothing but the truth! Yea, even at the risk of mechanising life, this is what makes it worth living, worth celebrating, and worth enjoying!”
01:15
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