Originally posted by: Dissipate
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Whether or not my vote determines the election is a very minimal consideration for me. I have to vote because I have principles. If I don't vote based on those principles, then my principles are worth nothing because I have forsaken them out of sheer laziness.
A principle that compels you to waste your time is a pretty whacked out principle.
It's incorrect to say that any vote is statistically insignificant, since each contributes equally; only in the aggregate are any votes meaningful.
The first part of this statement completely contradicts the second part. Any single vote is indeed statistically insignificant, and logically this is compatible with the fact that only an aggregate of votes is statistically significant.
The behavior of a single water molecule in the ocean is statistically insignificant. If I am in a boat sailing across the ocean a single molecule of water is completely and utterly insignificant to me. I am only aware of conditions that affect a huge number of those molecules interacting with each other.
Likewise, one would only be concerned with a single vote if they were religiously involved with politics, as evidently you are to a great degree. It is like a sailor isolating a single molecule of water in the ocean and caring where it goes.