• In a political context, the altruist's strongest antipathy is reserved for those who fail to execute their "civic duty" of voting. Although voters should preferably be properly informed, even the uninformed are exhorted to show that they "care" by casting their votes. From a reality-oriented viewpoint, a vote cast by a less concerned or less informed voter would either have a random effect on an election's outcome or else would tend to vitiate it. The altruist's focus, however, is not on such practical effects but on consciousness. In particular, widespread voting is necessary to help maintain the illusion of a collective public consciousness underlying the political process, and the nonvoter threatens that illusion.

Because altruism is non-reality-oriented, it was necessary above (p. 3.5:1) to specify that altruism demands sacrifice "for the supposed benefit of others." In many cases no objective benefit to those other human beings is achieved.     

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