Reasons to be involved with politics:1. You get to make a difference — The average person greatly overestimates how much of a difference his or her vote makes. Yes, every vote counts, but every vote only counts for one. The chance of an election being a tie without your vote is negligible. The first (and last) election I participated in was the 2008 Presidential Primary. With my help, Ron Paul had 8,590 votes. Without my vote, he would have had 8,589 — still just more than 61,000 short of Mike Huckabee. We wield no political power and will never make a difference.2. You can feel like you’re a part of something — It’s fun to wear hope and change stickers, duct tape your mouth and blog about the r3volution in the same way it’s fun to wear purple and gold to a cochon de lait. Politics is an extremely loud way to deal with loneliness.3. Politics is interesting — This point is fair. Learning about politics has the same merit as learning about the Roman Empire. There’s nothing wrong with acquiring knowledge, but there’s something unhealthy about falsely believing you wield any influence where you don’t.4. You have a moral obligation to vote — I don’t think this point is fair. If there is an argument mandating voting that doesn’t simply appeal to consequences, I’d be curious to hear it. But I have a sneaking suspicion such moral bullying is nothing more than the hobgoblin of defeated minds.5. Signaling — Politics is an efficient way to signal your values and personality traits to others. Want to show the world you’re compassionate? Talk about “free” health care. Want to show you’re loyal to your tribe? Rant about illegal immigrants. Want to show you’re intelligent? Write a treatise on monetary policy. We tend to be rather prudish about signaling. People don’t like to admit they’re doing something for the sake of appearances. What a shame. We should be able to honestly admit persona-creation is one of the greatest benefits political participation has to give you.Reasons not to be involved with politics:1. Corruption — Politicians and political parties are notoriously corrupt. We like to pretend this sign is of the times, but corruption is necessary. Political parties win by adapting to the shifting sands of public opinion. Having ideals, principles and morality is a career-limiting decision. With trillion-dollar bailouts at stake, there’s a tremendous market for corruption.2. Discord — Science is about finding truth. Business is about finding win-win relationships. Politics is about our side winning and their side losing, truth be damned. The world gets better when we focus on win-win relationships. Politics drags us into us vs. them-ism.3. Time Suck — Time, energy and emotion spent on politics are precious resources not spent on your schoolwork, your career or your relationships. You have zero political influence, but you do have the power to make your life better. Spending effort where it will have no impact is a misallocation of resources.This isn’t to say you should be indifferent to political outcomes. I’m not advocating an emotional deadening. Your soul should shudder in shock at the suffering wrought by the political process. That’s as healthy as it is justified.But the path to happiness isn’t a denial of reality. The truth of the matter is you wield no political influence. Your vote only counts if elections are tied without you. Thousands of letters to congressmen didn’t have an impact on the bailout vote. Even if millions of protesters can affect foreign policy, abortion or any other issue they might care about, the power of one additional protester is zero.As always, my goal is not to destroy your idealism but to save it. Idealism spent on the petty pyrrhic victories of politics is idealism squandered on a destructive delusion.Daniel Morgan is a 21-year-old economics senior from Baton Rouge, LA. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_dmorgan.—-Contact Daniel Morgan at [email protected]