Speaking of ambition

[Hagar]

"..that's how I've always felt about it," (memories fade out towards your distant past, huh? ).

Not at all. I remember very well what I was like at that age. I was considered very mature for my age but even so I had the natural trait of every young person I've ever met, that I was always right & everyone else was wrong. I still retain some of that trait today.

It's unfair to generalise but I would never have considered myself experienced enough to hold any official position at that age athough by the time I was 18 I had been working full-time for two years. I had my gliding licence & was training for my PPL. I had been senior NCO in my ATC squadron from the age of 16 & was told that I was the youngest cadet flight sergeant in the whole country. That was back in the early 1960s. Things have changed a lot since then & many young people now don't even start looking for a job or going out into the big wide world until they're in their 20s so, however mature they might be, most of them will have even less experience of life than I did at the age of 18.

if you don't want any of the candidates in office and/or you can't get anyone else to vote for you...

Not using your vote in the name of protest is a bad mistake. This is the way extremists manage to get into power & people get the leaders they deserve. People who don't use their vote have no right to complain if the result doesn't suit them as their vote could have made all the difference. It seems to me that the only reason this boy won this election is that he was the only candidate that took the trouble to canvass the electorate.

[jordonj]

Not using your vote in the name of protest is a bad mistake. This is the way extremists manage to get into power & people get the leaders they deserve. People who don't use their vote have no right to complain if the result doesn't suit them as their vote could have made all the difference. It seems to me that the only reason this boy won this election is that he was the only candidate that took the trouble to canvass the electorate.

Well said!

[H]

Not at all. I remember very well what I was like at that age. I was considered very mature for my age but even so I had the natural trait of every young person I've ever met, that I was always right & everyone else was wrong. I still retain some of that trait today.
It's unfair to generalise but I would never have considered myself experienced enough to hold any official position at that age athough by the time I was 18 I had been working full-time for two years. I had my gliding licence & was training for my PPL. I had been senior NCO in my ATC squadron from the age of 16 & was told that I was the youngest cadet flight sergeant in the whole country. That was back in the early 1960s. Things have changed a lot since then & many young people now don't even start looking for a job or going out into the big wide world until they're in their 20s so, however mature they might be, most of them will have even less experience of life than I did at the age of 18.

Thank you for the mutual verification: in contrast to you and I, for those who are occasionally, or more often, wrong, experience has a great amount of merit as to their perception of a course of action  ;).

Not using your vote in the name of protest is a bad mistake. This is the way extremists manage to get into power & people get the leaders they deserve. People who don't use their vote have no right to complain if the result doesn't suit them as their vote could have made all the difference. It seems to me that the only reason this boy won this election is that he was the only candidate that took the trouble to canvass the electorate.

Actually, I was speaking of the vote (not to vote) being a mistake: how about running for the office and even you vote for the opponent (whether or not everyone, including you, regrets it later). However, it gave you the opening for a nice little discourse.