The united states of Apathy

It's the thing these days to talk about our "broken government" and how both sides are worthless. The republicans are liking this very much.

They know that when it comes right down to it, they don't have the majority vote, so they stack the deck with tactics such as the voter suppression laws that are being pushed through in some states that make it harder to vote in ways that specifically target democratic voters...

And they propagate the idea that it's pointless to vote or participate in politics at all because the democratic party is gutless and just as ineffective as the GOP and that the whole system is broken... and as long as enough people buy into this depression and apathy, they are right!

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy because as long as they can keep so many democrats, moderates and independents all apathetic and depressed, those people are out of the game!

This is how the minority ascended to such power in the first place; by keeping us all apathetic zombies who don't give a crap.

Yes, the system is crap... capitalism is crap, but it's apathy that keeps it from moving forward and evolving into something better.

What if the people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya all just said "Well our country is just too screwed.. there's no point in doing anything."?

 

People are saying the government is broken because they're starting to wake up and see that in fact it is broken (at least broken in terms of working FOR them as opposed to AGAINST them). They see that both parties are controlled by the same big money interests and that most politicians couldn't give a shit less about them. I see this as a good thing. Maybe once enough people come to understand they're being had and that the so-called democratic process is a joke, enough minds will come together and come up with something new altogether. I am not going to get my hopes up, though. Unfortunately, the people are powerless under a fascist system, and democracy only provides the illusion of choice and change. Nothing ever really changes, except for continually getting worse. I see no difference between the current president and the one before him. Any differences between these empty suits are superficial at best.

 

I disagree. It's the idea that we can do something to change things that keeps us moving forward. Politics just gets in the way, and apathy is the only remedy.

 

China, India and Even Russia have just been kicking your ass lately.

Time for the US and EU to pull there finger out

 

The people are not apathetic or clueless. In the last few years the people have become aware of a dark cloud hanging over the country. They elected Obama out of a desperate attempt to stop it. They hoped he would be far out of the mainstream and that's the change they actually wanted.

Now I think most of the people know the voting booths don't do any good.

True concern for this nation's real problems are passed between friends, family, and trusted networks of activists.

The goal doesn't have to be revolution. We should begin with putting differences of left-right aside and demanding Constitutional restoration, at which point a type of left-right debate could be had which isn't fixed and scripted.

 

I think people are becoming less, as opposed to more, apathetic. Look at the Occupy Wall Street protest. Its been going on for a couple of weeks now. Thats fucking awesome and something I never could have predicted. I read about a guy that worked as a successful computer programmer in Silicon Valley. He quit his job so he could devote months to camping out in NYC and protesting. How is that apathy? Thats a total life change, as opposed to waking up on election day and casting a vote that we all know doesn't mean shit.

How can a vote mean anything when you can only choose two candidates, both of whom belong to established political parties, parties in which you can't get anywhere unless you toe the party line.

How can people believe their vote means anything anymore when you're essentially casting a vote for the wealthiest or biggest sell-out candidate; essentially the candidate that is able to get financing to get their name out there. Not the candidate with the greatest ideas, but the one that accepts campaign money from the oil or insurance companies and therefore has the most stylish TV ads.

The candidate that goes on to serve the interest of those that funded their campaign and not those that casted their vote.

The system IS broken but the great thing about that is people are starting to put their hopes in the people and not the politicians. A country IS their people, and participatory democracy is a great concept but America has never been a democracy. We've always been a Republic, which is fine in theory but after a few hundred years of it, rampant corruption is destined to develop in the voting system, as we're seeing now.

I think people are starting to realize that they have to take matters into their own hands if they want their country to work for them.

 

The system that we've been talking about is broken only because the working class has not defended democracy against the forces of plutocracy. I do agree that unless the working class starts actively defending it's self, this country will fall into feudalism no matter which party is in power.

That said though, I think it should be obvious to everyone at this point that the GOP will take us there much faster. But there are more democrats in America than republicans. The only reason the GOP keeps rigging elections is because they know that's the only way they can stay in power as a minority of the vote.

Voting democrat by it's self won't save America, the working class has to get busy defending it's self, but if a republican wins the next election, someone I love more than life it's self, who depends on medicare will not be able to afford life saving medications... and many of you may well be facing a similar situation.

It's easy to blame government, politicians, greedy corporations, the republicans or the wealthy elite, but blame doesn't solve the problem, action does.

 

Walsh, I think when you read the part you quoted, your eyes skipped the word "from" because it seems to me that we are saying the same thing..

'but it's apathy that keeps it from moving forward and evolving into something better.'

 

There seems always to be a tipping point when situations can flip dramatically to the opposite of what they have been. There are many that are aware that the time has come for a major flip here in the US. Change is inevitable, so the government will only tighten up and get much worse here by resisting change, or we,the citizens, will prove to the greed-crazed neanderthals that we mean business. I've always disagreed with Rat on his stance that there is no differance between republican goals , ideas/ideals and democratic goals, ideas/ideals. Yeah ,we get the same old faces shuffling back and forth from government postions to lobbying positions. Same old money game over and over. Same warmongers with their endless war. However--WITHIN THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM THAT WE HAVE--the democrats will come down on the side of the middle and poor classes every time,whereas the opposite is true for the repubs. Yes,it's all a money game at our expense and they all want to stay in office to slop at the public taxpayer trough,but as long as this system is retained,and working class people remain ignorant by voting against their own interests-that is ,voting republican--we're in for far worse times ahead. As Dep said in Fear and Loathing----what's next? What's the score?

Those few people demonstrating on Wall Street are trying to show us the way,I think.

 

We walk to our destinations and all go silent for an hour, some sit, others kneel. No, I'm not serious, but it could drive the cops nuts.:biker:

 

Really? You honestly believe that? What are the Democrats doing to help the poor?

The war isn't so much on the poor (who are already where they want them) as much as it is the working/middle class.

They want a two class system in America -- a minority of ultra rich lording over a majority of ultra poor.

Two parties controlled by big money and corporate interests can only be different in the most superficial of ways. That's why Obama is really just another George W. Bush, but with different rhetoric that appeals to a targeted audience (and even those people aren't buying his shit anymore).

Seriously, what does Obama support that Bush didn't?

Illegal wars, warrantless wiretapping, the Patriot Act, etc. Nothing has changed, yet people will defend Obama, either because he's black or because he's a Democrat. Two things which mean absolutely NOTHING!

 

I'm a great believer in that one cannot complain about the state of their Nation if one is not willing to contribution to the causes that one champions.
Change comes with People power - Power to us all

 

To post 11--------I know. The Dems have lost their way along with their plums. You know how the votes went regarding SS,women's rights,civil rights,40 hour work week, overtime pay,pro or against union activities,ect. Hell,it's going on right now with the right-wing protecting the millionaires-billionaires at all costs,while the dems are at least trying to make them pay a larger share. Those people on Wall Street are showing us the way,but few will heed the call,I'm afraid.

 

But it's not even about that. That is a total distraction the left promotes to actually protect and further the status quo while creating phony polarization.

I see all these liberals protesting on Wall Street, yet they never make any mention of the Federal Reserve and the handful of elite families that control it. That's where the real problem lies.

Liberals see "the rich" as being the person with a big house and a yacht in their front yard. Those are not the rich.

 

The two party system is destroying the US

 

!!!

Do my eyes deceive me?

You're back you're back!!

 

Modern Democrats are just as bad as Republicans. They both bullshit to about the same extent.

as far as the protest, I think it's beginning at Wall St. is a message to the wealthy handful of families who own this place all the same. Although it was small (but has now grown) the fact that it began at Wall St. and not in front of businesses or politicians themselves shows that there's an acknowledgement there's a problem with our entire economic system. A lot of the protesters do care about the Fed I'm sure - there are a lot of Ron Paul supporters in the crowd.

In Oct. they plan to launch a protest in D.C. where they might visit the Fed, you never know...

I say power to them. Even if the people's demand for change doesn't count for anything until 10 years from now, it's still worth it. That's how apathy is reversed. .

 

To me talking about the problems functions as a stalling tactic against actually doing something about it... and that seems to be how American politics works. The problem is that people are willfully transfixed on the puppet show in Washington- the effort put into what amounts to theater intended to create the illusion that those in government intend to solve the issues when to me, the very effort to perpetrate transparent "debate" (the repeating deficit wrangling for example) is proof positive that there is no actual intent on solving a damned thing.

Meanwhile political gab at the grassroots level reflects that most people are buying into their own deception when they ask questions like, "Do you think *major party candidate* will do a good job?" and "Who are you voting for?" The system may not be broken (I'm convinced it is) but almost to the last soul, the clowns running it are... as are those promoted as the next wave of candidates who are going to "clean up government". As long as the majority buys into this incredible deception nothing will change for the better.

 

I can't figure out how people take the theatrics seriously. Its obviously a game; our whole system is a game, from the political to the economic side. Wall Street is full of men playing with money like its a game of monopoly, and the political side is, like you said, a puppet show. Their power is mythical and once people realize that and realize its all a big dangerous joke, I think a lot of their power would be stripped away.

 

You know, I feel I'm being chastised every time I point out that democrats have been better for the working and poor classes in -say-the last 100 years. Yeah,I know it's screwed up now. Worse than ever. I have known people personally for whom the WPA and CCC camps saved their families from starvation. Democratic programs. I have worked with people that rode the rails and got their asses beat up and run out of towns for being "bums". Liberals beating them? Don't think so. I have known people that were arrested for having NO MONEY. Vagrancy law. I have known and talked to people that got their asses beat for trying to form unions. I didn't get this shit from reading books. The republicans voted against those programs then and they're still trying to eliminate any vestige of safety the nets for citizens in need. All I was trying to point out that WITHIN THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM WE HAVE---to vote republicans in will exacerbate the flow of capital up and away from ordinary working citizens. I've said--the vote is the only thing we have left unless millions of people go to the nest of the stench and show them we mean business. OK--so a few families run the whole rigamarole. The whole thing is a sham. The same old gray-heads are the front for the real power. That doesn't mean that I don't see it and agree with it. Fine--I've been made to look like I'm an ignorant fool--Fuck history. So then--this fool asks--what the fuck is next???

I agree with the statement that Skip has under his posts. Socialism (with a tiny amount of capitalism) is what's needed ,in my opinion.