apathy
Apathy is the New Fascism
The United States is the most powerful country on Earth. Our military is huge and our politicians send it anywhere they please. Our corporations are some of the largest private companies to exist in all human history. Some of the greatest artists, scientists, writers, musicians and inventors of all time are Americans. We were the first colony to rip off the chains of imperialism.
We now place the same chains on others.
The United States of today perpetrates the same crimes on the rest of the world as the Europe of centuries ago. We’re ruled by a partnership of corporations and politicians willing to destroy liberties and lives in order to maintain their power. How long we’ve been this way is unclear, but when I look at the things we’ve done lately --- like choosing to topple a sovereign government in Iraq, eagerly purchasing mass goods made by sweatshop labor in the Third World, blocking action on global warming --- I see a nation that’s completely betrayed its founding ideals. We do to the rest of the world what the British did to us: exploit without shame.
Staying Motivated
We espouse a belief that the world needs changing, we build a site to do that, we make promises, and then we do... nothing.
Why? How? Is our way of life really not worth saving? Is a low gas price really worth irreversible climate change? We should be out screaming and yelling at the top of our lungs and throwing wrenches into the works left and right until things begin to change.
Instead, we sit around and wait, and join Facebook groups. Because the truth of the matter is, all of this -- whether it be trying to convince our parents to recycle, or refusing to replace a burnt-out bulb with one that isn't a compact fluorescent, or calling our congressional representatives to tell them how we feel on an issue -- is really, unbelievably fucking difficult.
It's time-consuming, it requires patience, perseverance, willpower, and an endgoal. And at the end of the day, when you get back to your dorm or your apartment and all you want to do is open a beer and watch some TV, being patient and keeping your eye on the prize are far from the top of your priority list.
WaPo Editorial: Young People Don't Know, Don't Care
h/t to Mike at Future Majority
There was an article in Sunday's Washington Post that accused young people of not knowing much about politics, not caring much, being too cynical, you know... all the usual scolding. There are grains of truth to it, of course, but the overall argument is simply BS. Admittedly, I say a lot of the same stuff sometimes, but always with the implied asterisk that there's a growing movement composed of beautiful, beautiful exceptions.
For the most part, we are a cynical bunch. And on the whole, it's true, we don't hit the streets to protest very much. And yeah, there are definitely a lot of idiots in our ranks. But all those things can be said of any generation. It's not fair to single us out for what's really a much, much wider problem.
The Politics of Apathy
Barack Obama talks about the politics of hope. But isn't it funny how 'the politics of being a corporate asshole' seem to be leading the polls right now?
I want to talk about a different kind of politics, a colder, more depressing type, one that's not speculative or optimistic, a kind that no candidate in his right mind would dare try to articulate: the politics of apathy. It's how Bush stumbled into the White House. It's what got us stuck in Iraq. It's what lets prisoners at Guantanamo get tortured.
Simply put, we have poor leaders because we're poor citizens; the reason politicians treat you like shit is they don't respect you. And why should they? They've forgotten what real democracy feels like (and so have we). They don't fear their constituents because they know they can manipulate us so easily. All you have to do is raise a bunch of money to run a slick campaign. No surprise that's what their main goal is nowadays: fundraising, so they can buy those ads to convince you they're NOT incompetent shitheads who create more problems than they solve---no, no, no, they're on your side, they always have been, and they always will be. And the lie wins most every time, aided by the facts that most congressional districts are unfairly drawn to favor incumbents and that most people just don't care much about politics.
a little bit of history goes a long way
There are so many quotes out there dealing with the idea that ‘if you don’t remember history, you are doomed to repeat it’ or things of that nature. I agree 100% with these statements. Now, as a history freak and major, I’m probably a little biased, but there are so many patterns and cycles of events- both good and bad- that circulate throughout our histories. I’ve come to the conclusion that not understanding or remembering what happened back in the day certainly plays a role in the apathetic feelings of current generations and definitely affects how we perceive current crises/issues.
Overcoming Apathy
Recently, a number of anonymous posters appeared on campus that apparently had the goal, like Lose the Label, of somehow trying to end the entrenched culture of apathy here. It turns out, most people completely agree that we as a generation need to be more involved, more active, and more passionate. The problem is that most people also don't know what they are supposed to be outraged or passionate about. Unless they are political science majors, many people feel that they simply are not well enough informed on any issue to have an opinion about it. Cable news sure doesn't teach these people about real issues.