Do Politics Matter?

The current apathy, the lack of passion for getting involved in political issues is pervasive. The number of Canadians who turn out to vote indicates that people no longer have the heart for the process. Elections  have become less and less engaging.

It is among the young that one most often hears the touting of refusing to go to the polls as in and of itself a show of courage. “This is my statement”, they will explain. This dark-side-of-the moon thinking that by not taking action you are showing your power is clinically called passive aggressive.  When did two generations become passive aggressive in their stance towards what they see as “authority.”

It is a like a budgie having an argument with a mirror.

The authority that people are refusing to engage with is in themselves. Wikapedia tells us that, “Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions.” There can be no group without individuals.

After we voted in our city council election, my husband said, “There is no military waiting to shoot us for voting, ” as we walked out of the polling place. In so many places in the world one who votes has a darkened thumb. If it is discovered, the individual can and frequently will disappear. Only 20% of our local citizens voted. The point my husband was making was that the empty polling station could only be explained by the presence of death squads. Why else would people refuse to become a part of the life of their city, their province, their country?

The lack of engagement extends all the way down to our local neighbourhood association. I have heard very intelligent and charitable people say, “I don’t need to go. I know there are others standing up for our interests.” And I think this is really the bottom line.

Being a good neighbour is what politics is ultimately about. Caring for and taking action to preserve the safety, the peacefulness and the liveability of our block, our city, our province or our country is about doing something which takes effort. To go out the door and give some of our time and energy to maintaining and improving our civil environment, is the “right and duty” of each of us. When did we lose that sense of connectedness?

“Perhaps”, I said to my husband jokingly, “If they did just shoot two people at random there would be a surge of outrage and the passive aggressives would get out to vote just ‘to show them!’ “