Joe E. Dees writes:
"My individually refusing to do business with a polluting company will
not deter them from polluting in the process of manufacturing
products to sell to those who do not share my squeamishness."
Your complaint, then, is essentially that without political power you lack the means to ram your opinions down everybody else's throat. Boo hoo.
Again:
"Likewise, an individual decision not to participate in one's own
governance simply leaves it in the hands of others (who most
probably do not have your best interests as close to their hearts as
you do) by default."
Exactly why I don't want to leave my "governance" in anyone else's hands,
especially the hands of those most eager to "govern" me. I don't want to
"participate" in somebody else's idea of how I should run my life.
Dick