Apathy

[LSK]

Got any ideas on how to convince people that the Iraq war is more important than the TomKat wedding???

:shrug:

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Conscription

That's Rangel's point, methinks.

[BlooInBloo]

7. Good.

[bananas]

16. Yeah, haul their ass from the boob-tube to the boot-camp.

As I said before:

38. If McCain can talk about 20,000 more troops without being tarred and feathered
then people haven't woken up enough.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2797479&mesg_id=2797652

[merh]

2. The same we convince people that Katrina survivors are still

in need.

You figure it out, please let me know. :(

[LSK]

3. $9 billion per month going towards Iraq could help you guys a lot

[merh]

6. It sure would.

But Tom & Katie's cake was so purty. :silly:

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. You know I have no clue what will wake people up

[merh]

22. Hell, even here

you put a Katrina thread up and it drops like a stone.

All we can do is keep trying.

[magellan]

4. We shoulda forced Tom and Katie to get married in Baghdad

(It is Katie, isn't it? I don't pay much attention to celebrities.)

[Bjorn Against]

5. We can convince people, but what about the media?

Most people I hear talking think the media's obsession with Tom Cruise and Brittany Spears is just sickening. People are much more concerned about Iraq than you might think, but our media has the same journalistic standards as the National Enquirer.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. Apathy is

bad. :(

[Mojambo]

9. Same thing you do when your kid is distracted

Turn off the TV and take away their toys.

[nam78_two]

10. OhGod-I SO hear you

Or ya know GLOBAL WARMING....

I don't know why lefties don't broach this issue more :shrug:
We lay all the blame on the politicians and the media, but we never look at ourselves-there is more to being political than just having an opinion.

Its easy to post on forums-try recruiting someone to actually show up for a protest or change their consumption patterns or volunteer for the Democratic Party or anything and the crowd thins in an instant....
No one likes work x(

I am tired of armchair activists....

(sorry-feeling exceptionally bitter after a failed protest that no one showed up for)

[windbreeze]

28. It was NOT a failed protest...if YOU were there....

even ONE voice, even ONE....counts....
windbreeze

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Apathy is a form of resistance

Desertion. Checking out. Done.

There's something to it, I think. It's certainly more interesting than some of the so-called "political engagement" practiced by the political junkies, as a phenomenon. It may even be a more radical critique of the status quo than anything the blogosphere has ever put together. How do you really affect the degradation of democracy. Check out. Act as if it is a sham. Some may say that this is quietist, but I suspect that there is more truly political content there than many suspect. It may be the politically engaged who prop up the sham by providing it with the illusory qualities of a democracy. The apathetic may be the smart ones: they know it's a sham, and have moved on to other things.

If you can't do a damn thing about either, then Iraq is NOT more important than TomKat's wedding. One is a romantic comedy, and one is a tragic drama. It's really a matter of what you want to tune into as a matter of preference. The ones who know that - the ones who know that each is just entertainment - know more than those of us who think that the first is an important "issue" while the second is a trivial "event." They're equally important and equally trivial - because they are equally beyond the reach of democratic action. I respect the apathetic, even if they don't know this or grasp it consciously. Unconscious desertion is still desertion, and desertion may be the way through when the sham is total, and totalized.

You want less apathy. I want more of it. Much more.

[LSK]

13. I volunteered for a campaign recently

I would like to think I have some control. Maybe I am delusional.

[Mojambo]

14. Very interesting thought.

I kinda feel you on that.

[nam78_two]

15. I am sorry

but that strikes me as an attitude that only people better off than most can afford :shrug:?

Intellectually thats all very romantic and intriguing, but most people on the planet (specially those who are not in the US of A) cannot ignore the realities of their life.

It annoys me when reasonably well off Americans act like these victims whose actions count for nothing, when so many people are suffering directly as an action of our govt.? If someone is spending their spare time playing video games and watching tv as a form of "protest" about their disenfranchisement, while some Iraqi family is watching their house go up in flames, I am sorry, I have a difficulty viewing the American as a victim!

[alcibiades_mystery]

25. But the real conditions are precisely the reverse

It is those who are middle class and upper middle class who are most engaged, and those who are most at risk who are most apathetic. It's as if one of the conditions of relative comfort in the US is buying the illusion of democracy that circulates here, while those who are closest to their material conditions have no need or time for such ideological tricks. You say being apathetic is a luxury of the well-off. In fact, what is really going on is just the reverse: political engagement in the sham democracy is the luxury item, like an 37" LCD flat-screen, or a backyard.

Let me be very clear: apathy is not a form of "protest." That's not what I'm saying. Checking out of the political system is a political act, but none of this has anything to do with "protest." Protest is an illusion of the politically engaged, one of their little cherished traditions. It doesn't work anymore, of course, but they keep it around anyway, like they keep old watches in their bedside tables.

[BlooInBloo]

17. Um, I don't think "apathy" means what you think it means.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. I know exactly what apathy means

...

[omega minimo]

20. Horseshit

That's a great parody, alcibiades_mystery! :yourock:

[ronnie624]

27. Well said.

I often find truth in your posts.

Many of those who consider themselves politically "aware", are really not as aware as they believe. And often they are very angry at those who refuse to root for their "team" all of the time.

There are many disturbing flaws in our government and our political system that voting for one faction over another will not fix. In fact, the most disturbing of all to me - the almost total dominance of our government by corporate interests - seems to be the universally accepted foundation for all that follows in terms of policy and legislation.

What is a genuine progressive to do, when the only political parties that matter, are bought and paid for by corporate lobbyists?

[GOPBasher]

12. Give them pills to increase their IQ?

:shrug:

[BlooInBloo]

18. god if ONLY.

[omega minimo]

19. Impeach Reagan

[earth mom]

23. I've deliberately stayed out of the draft debates...

but I do think that a draft is probably the only thing that is going to wake people up. The war just hasn't touched home enough. The majority of people aren't sacrificing anything except more money at the pump and at the store, which is not enough to make them care.

[The2ndWheel]

26. That's the price of specialization and endless choice

Everyone can go into their own world. Everyone can pick what they wish to follow.

Nothing comes for free. If you do something, there will be one set of consequences. If you do something else, another set.

This is the reality that has been built. This is the result of a world built of, for, and by the large scale. We'll get out of Iraq when the specialized political class wants to. We'll go back into another war(there will be another one, and another, and another) when that same specialized group wishes to do so.

In a world where everyone can't have everything, our whole way of life says that everyone can. This is what you get.

[selfdestructive]

29. i just dont care

about this thread