(no subject)

[nolly]

When a generation grows up hearing "ignore them and they'll go away" when they complain about someone else's behavior, further reinforced by the general ineffectualness of authority figures (school adminitrators, teachers, parents) regarding bullying, is it surprising that many of these children become adults who ignore politics?

I'm not saying all adults are always ineffective in the face of peer abuse, or that everyone my age is apolitical. It just struck me today that I have much the same attitude about politics and international conflict as I developed about teasing, etc.: ignore it and get on with life. Made worse because the political stuff rarely has as direct an impact on my life -- Dubya isn't playing keep-away with my umbrella, Osama didn't slap me across the dinner table. I don't think I'm the only one; otherwise, we'd be seeing more 60s-style activism, I think. We (myself and those like me) don't know where to start, or how to have an impact. Writing letters doesn't feel effective -- turning people in to the teacher or pricipal neve made them stop. Why would the politicos listen?

While I know I can have an impact in my communities (which is not the same as my neighborhood or my city), because I am known there, I don't feel that I can affect anything on a national level.

Comments

[ptgmachetti.livejournal.com]

heh. indeed, 'nolly.

...and here, just recently i was blaming the same line for other things... i forget what, probably my preference of avoiding confrontation. (i have a couple newer friends who prefer to get things out in the open right away, whereas i'm more prone to back off for a while and just let it go... [and, now that i think on it more, those friends happen to be older people... hmm... ])

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It's the same thing, on a small scale and a large one, as I see it. Avoiding politics is avoiding conflict, national conflict, international conflict. Looking at it this way, it's no wonder that lately I've liked the less publically flaky Natural Law candidates -- the people who have the "let's all chill out and get along" platform. Even though I recognize that most of them would be unable to actually accomplish anything in office, I generally can't stand any of the candidates who stand a chance anyway. So I end up voting a mixed ticket that's mostly Libertarian and Natural Law, with the occasional mainstream candidate where the third parties are running utter flakes.