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Not Apathetic

Tell the world why you're not voting - don't let your silence go unheard

They're not voting because...

Prompted to blame the apathetic

1. I thought I had been registered to vote while I was out of the country. But I hadn't. This has led me to a paroxysm of guilt. And then it got me thinking - maybe I would be able to vote the way I wanted - by not voting at all....

2. So the reason I have now for not voting is mainly that people don't care about governance or social development, and they deserve whatever party/government they get. I have taken this opportunity to sah 'bah humbug!' not to the politicians or the political process, but all the idiots in the country who spend none of their time looking after their own long-term interests! You get what you deserve, people!

You see, it's all very well some people getting hot under the collar about this issue or that issue (I get hot about enviroment issues, mainly), and then being oh-so-concerned in addition about the state of the polity and all that.

But the reality is that we don't live in a politically cultured time: people are too stupefied by their consumerist urges to get off their arses - not just before an election, but at all - to contribute to an onrunning deliberative process of critiquing the society they've got and creating the one they way.

Revolutionaries are only ever as good as the people's will: and this is why we basically never have any good revolutionaries in the post-industrial consumerist age.

So, this is a sideways counterpunch (possible?) to the normal-but-boring critique of those pesky twats in dark suits talking bilge on the TV. It's a bop on the nose to the peskier and much more numerous twats who are somewhere between scratching their scrotum/bra-strap and popping off down the DVD dispenser for the next hit of escapist solipsism.

You can tell I feel a bit guilty about having failed to be registered. But it's not all guilt, I do mean it: people are crap and lazy.

We don't deserve a culture of statesmanship until we can create a culture of citizenship

written 27th Apr 2005

Responses

Gavin replies: If people are basically happy to eat, sleep, work, watch DVDs and bring up their kids and most of areas of their lives are more or less OK, then that's OK, isn't it? Why rise up and revolt if everything is basically alright, as far as you see it? If you really don't care who's in power - and let's be honest, it makes bugger all difference (it's all one big balancing act) - does it really matter? There are a lot of things in life you can think about, read about, talk about, worry about - but in truth most people will ultimately igonre most issues. There just aren't enough hours in the day. Politics is just one issue. If you really want to make a difference to the world, there are ways you can do it without voting in a UK election.

written 27th Apr 2005

About Not Apathetic

NotApathetic was built so that people who are planning not to vote in the UK General Election on May 5th can tell the world why. We won't try to persuade you that voting is a good or a bad idea - we're just here to record and share your explanations. Whether ideological, practical or other, any reason will do.

A lot of users would like us to mention that if you spoil your ballot paper, it will be counted. So if you want to record a vote for "none of the above", you can.

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