APATHY QUOTES III
quotations about apathy
It's a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares any more; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.
RICHARD YATES
Revolutionary Road
What about our alleged political apathy? Is that harder to disprove? There is a decent chunk of evidence that suggests young people are generally disinterested in elections. One study found that 24 per cent of young people didn't identify with any particular political party, compared to 7 per cent of older voters. But I don't think research showing young people are disengaged from the formal political process, and feel alienated from political parties, automatically means they don't care about key political issues. Polls regularly show that young people support progressive political change on key issues like marriage equality by a much higher margin than older Australians. The same pattern exists when looking at issues like action on climate change and our treatment of refugees. The biggest political advocacy organisation in the country, GetUp! is full of young, passionate campaigners striving to make a difference. Young people care about issues that affect them, like housing and education, as well as social justice issues that are about making the country a fairer place to live.
OSMAN FARUQI
"Let's stop the Millennial bashing", SBS, March 10, 2016
Our political apathy is the only reason a candidate so brash and callous could make headlines day after day. Grown adults smirked and shook their heads as young people turned to comedy for their news, as if the degradation of democracy by our parents' complacency was not the primary reason for our distrust of the media. These are the same young people who, in turn, reduced political discourse to memes and clickbait, making an instant celebrity of any public figure capable of eliciting the sort of shock needed to garner attention in a 24/7 media orgy of reality TV and journalistic sensationalism.
RAGHAV SHARMA
"The Donald we deserve", America Blog, March 10, 2016
The current apathy is a recipe for more apathy.
AMY DREIBELBIS FAIRWEATHER
"Chuck Sweeny: Rebranding Freeport for future growth", Freeport Journal Standard, February 28, 2016
Apathy is the outgrowth of their inability to change the world.
GEORGE DAVID MILLER & CONRAD P. PRITSCHER
On Education and Values: In Praise of Pariahs and Nomads
Apathy is a risk-aversion strategy.
JOOST VAN LOON
Risk and Technological Culture
Presumably, apathy is the greatest danger to truly representative political systems; without the vote, with blind choice, or with one choice, the representative character of democracy is lost.
HERBERT I. LONDON
Social Science Theory: Structure and Application
Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.
JAMES BALDWIN
If Beale Street Could Talk
And of course apathy is alive and well every election when more people choose to stay home instead of voting.
JIM MUIR
"'Trump Movement' is not hard to understand", The Southern Illinoisan, March 10, 2016
Slums may well be breeding-grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
CYRIL CONNOLLY
The Unquiet Grave
Unless Bangladeshis shun political apathy, doctors fight for journalists and truck drivers; engineers defend garment factory workers' rights; professionals fight for equal opportunities for all; men fight for women, and women for men; rich fight for the poor, and poor for the rich, the country will remain politically inert, socially backward, and economically stagnant without any rule of law and equity. I believe political apathy is the mother of all evils in Bangladesh. There's hardly anything in life beyond politics. We're all related to each other in power perspective.
TAJ HASHMI
"Political Violence, 'Rational Ignorance', And 'Political Illiteracy' In Bangladesh", Counter Currents, February 29, 2016
Apathy is the capitulation of personhood, the refusal to grow, to become who we really are. It is the ultimate cop-out -- the insistence that things will never change, so why should we.
ALBERT J. LACHANCE
Cultural Addiction: The Greenspirit Guide to Recovery
Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy.
JOSEPH CONRAD
Heart of Darkness
Apathy borders upon folly.
PUBLIUS SYRUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
I didn't care about anything. And there's a freedom in apathy, a wild, dizzying liberation on which you can almost get drunk.
LIONEL SHRIVER
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Ask a politician a blunt question, and chances are you'll never quite get a real answer. Say the truth loud and clear, and you'll probably become a pariah of sorts.... You see, our country is battling an intellectual illness termed political correctness; a social and political trend that Wilbur Smith deems "the worst form of censorship" because "you're not allowed to speak your mind...." It's a dangerous mask for apathy, a validation for the corruption and immorality in this upside down world. All in all, it hinders our growth as a nation and impedes the very foundations on which this country was built: freedom of speech, justice, and progressive change.
SHALVA GOZLAND
"Political Incorrectness", Huffington Post, February 19, 2016
Thoughtlessness or apathy is the only obstacle to success.
CHARLES TURNER THACKRAH
The Effects of Arts, Trades, and Professions
Many of the policies promoted at the local level are often very technical, which makes it quite easy to get lost in the details as research about policies are being done, and this technical nature of these policies is another reason why many voters tend to sit out these local elections. Their apathy is rational, not ignorant. If people are unable to understand the details of a given policy issue, it would be rational for them to not pay attention to local politics at all, but I am imploring people to not take this approach. Learning about these issues can be tough, but local politics is where the impact of your vote is the most palpable. You can see the new sidewalk being built; you can see the new textbooks your school has received; you can see a library being built for your community. These are just some of the benefits of being cognizant of your local politics.
JACOB PIERCE
"Trump isn't the only one you should pay attention to", Vanderbilt Hustler, February 24, 2016
It's enthusiasm, not apathy, that makes the world go 'round.
TONY ALESSANDRA
Charisma
No, it's a sign of the democracy that's anemic. It's a sign that people just know the system is rigged. It's a sign that they know big money dictates and shapes the destiny of the government and the society. Unfortunately, the dominant response is one of staying away rather than trying to participate and reshape it. So we can understand, in a certain sense, the apathy, but the apathy is in no way justified. We've got to participate, not just in the ballot box, but, as Sister Melina says, we've got to hit the streets. We've got--we have to have organizing and mobilizing and have to be willing to go to jail. And some of us, actually, have to be willing to die.
CORNEL WEST
"Bernie, Hillary or Revolution in the Streets? Cornel West, Dolores Huerta & Black Lives Matter Debate", Democracy Now, March 9, 2016