We do not expect taxation to be spent efficiently, and we do not imagine that one vote out of forty million (in Italy) or even two hundred thousand (in Luxemburg) will make a huge difference. The point is rather that voting is a feature of the connection of the citizen with the State; it validates the authority of the State, by basing it on explicit popular support, and conversely it shows that the citizen has a definite claim on the State. Which, in turn, means that the citizen has a right to take any politial initiative (within the law) that seems right to him or her. One person never makes a difference, but many times one person makes a party, a movement, or a people.

That being said, it sounds as if you had a teacher with serious personal disappointments.