Brazil's Forced Democracy

Today, at around 15:45, I was forced to vote. Not that I wouldn't've, since I think the voting process is worth one's while, but being forced to vote (or forced to justify one's absence from the voting booth) is nothing short of pathetic; it is the acknowledgment by our political class that our democracy is a sham, that people would refrain from voting in droves if they had the opportunity. This country is a fucking joke, there is not a pubic hair of seriousness to our public lives and affairs. Our political institutions have as their sole goal their own continuity, and those that participate in them are, when not absolute scum, well-meaning individuals who face impossible odds when they attempt any positive change. Our political class takes positive and negative freedom and mixes it all up into whatever stew will guarantee them a job for the next four years and therefor some immediate monetary gain and a few more years at the possibility of racketeering or trafficking of influence.

It's not like our American friends to the north are any better, but they at least have democracy at the local levels, electing judges, sheriffs, and what-not. All we do is either elect clowns or those who are flat-out the scum of the Earth. I'm tired of this shit, but quite depressed at the notion that it is, at least from my perspective, impossible to change. But that's why we have meteors, I suppose.