Apathy Is The Enemy

So... It has been 229 years since those gentlemen in Philadelphia signed that immortal document declaring the United States a free nation.

What better time than this holiday to take a moment and point out something I am overtly concerned about with modern society.

This problem, which I consider to be the single biggest trouble of the United States (and quite possibly the world) today, is apathy.

It is to the point where during a typical U.S. election, you'd be lucky to get 30% of the eligible population of 124 million to vote. This past presidential election, one of the biggest and most contested in history, only saw slightly over 60%.

SIXTY PERCENT.

These people can't be bothered to spend one hour in a year to wander down to the voting booth to check a box, but most of them watched with rapt attention as Katie Couric interviewed the Runaway Bride, or strained to see if Michael Jackson wore his pajamas to court again as the trail wound down. They spend all their cash on video games and entertainment centers, but never make a donation of a single dollar or take a single hour of their time to volunteer for a charitable organization. They make sure they never miss their favorite TV show, but they don't get involved in any way shape or form with the betterment of American society, or the Human race as a whole.

And they complain about how bad stuff is, all the while marching off the cliff like good little Lemmings.

AND IT DRIVES ME BONKERS!

Alas, this is mostly preaching to the Choir, as most of the people I am actually aware of that read this blog do something with their time. However, there is still some traffic that comes here for nothing other than those Hatsumi links, as well as some random net-surfers that may or may not do anything… so maybe there are some Lemmings wandering about. The rest of you, go grab a soda and then pass up the rest of this stuff.

Let me directly address the Lemmings here:

Firstly, self interested politicians love you people. You are the reason that the current government is basically an oligarchy, with a 90% incumbency rate in Congress. They can do whatever they want, because short of murdering a crippled orphan with a puppy on the 6 O'clock news, they'll still get reelected.

Big business loves you. They can abuse the consumer however they want, because no matter how loudly you complain, you still give them your money. They could sell you a movie you could only watch once before it melts down the DVD player it's in, and you would still buy it. They could make it so that you have absolutely no ability to open up your own car to change the oil, forcing you to bring it in to an authorized dealer to get it changed for $100 every 1000 miles before some governer chip makes the car undrivable, and you would still buy the car. They could bulldoze the Library of Congress to put up a Wal-Mart staffed completely by robots, and you would still shop there.

The modern media loves you. The free press is supposed to act as democracy's guardian angel. It is supposed to look for abuses of power, and rattle cages, and keep the guys with the money and power in line. Now they just act as another one of those power-abusers, because as long as you get your celebrity interviews you don't care.

These groups could get together, blow up the Statue of Liberty, and hold a party in the wreckage (complete with a bonfire that used the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as tinder). They could televise it, and all you would do is go "Damn, that sucks," before shoveling more cheese puffs in that gaping maw of yours.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO SOMETHING! Get involved! With anything! In any capacity!

Donate money to a charitable cause! Be like Leigh Ann (the random girl from Florida who reads this blog) and join Americorp! (Or the Peace Corp for those internationally inclined!) Or spend a weekend building a house for Habitat for Humanity! Be an adult leader for a Scouting program. Be a child mentor, a Big Brother / Big Sister. Get involved in local politics, run for your school board or another local office. Write editorials. DO ANYTHING as long as it isn't sitting on your ass and doing nothing! Humanity cannot improve if everyone is sitting around and waiting for someone else to do it!

And for Pete's sake, if you do nothing else, vote! It takes, on average, less than one hour a year to wait in line and check that box. I know the old complaint that one vote doesn't change anything. This is somewhat, and sadly, true, but the point is that you're not alone! Almost fifty million people eligible didn't vote in the last election! Think of a single vote like a penny. One cent isn't worth much alone, but if I offered you fifty million cents, would you take it? (If your answer was no, you just passed up five hundred thousand dollars, by the way.)

Kids, with fifty million votes even Nader could've won. And maybe with more weight behind the voting population, we may actually get people in a positions of power that are not self-interested and corrupt!

You can either do something to improve your little corner of the world for once... Or you can keep being a Lemming.

So to those who try to change the world for the better: Good luck, and Godspeed.

And to the lemmings... i hope you choke on your cheese puffs...