apathy of the population [Archive]

danyboy27

21st August 2008, 00:42

spartan

21st August 2008, 00:59

Having an apathetic working class is too the advantage of the ruling elite as they want things too remain stable as it is to their benefit (no chance of an economic crises or too radical politics becoming prevalent in government).

People are largely apathetic because they realise they are in a shit situation but think that they can't do anything about it.

If only all those people would gather together and see that they outnumber those bastards at the top, then things might really change.

Alas apathy prevents such a possibility which is why it is promoted by the ruling elite and their media.

PigmerikanMao

21st August 2008, 02:11

http://www.aoe.vt.edu/%7Ecdhall/img/Apathy.jpg

I'm sure the bourgeois will stop exploiting us soon, we have to die some time.

danyboy27

21st August 2008, 02:54

Question how do we wake apathic people up?

apathics can only wake up if they want to, you cant really force them to do anything.

its lik when you are an addicted, you really stop drinking when you get to the bottom.

freakazoid

21st August 2008, 06:14

One of my ideas on how to wake apathetic people up, http://www.revleft.com/vb/some-my-ideas-t83188/index.html

Decolonize The Left

21st August 2008, 06:26

i wont ask if someone actually noticed that, i think its pretty easy to see trought the western world, apathy is something that completly invaded today society.

it seem to me its completly deprived society itself of its essence, of its life.

verry fews peoples shake thing up, and i dont talk about left/right politics, i am talking about the whole society and its various movements.

i have been able to admit i was myself a apathic person, and that i need to do something to change that, otherwise my life will be wasted.

i think without apathy the society would be more passioned and more great.

Apathy is but a warning sign of nihilism.

The lack of meaningful value in one's life and life activities is also known as nihilism. Consumerism, spectacle politics, the death of God, the polarization of the classes, etc... are all responsible for this movement into nihilism. Apathy is what we see, but nihilism is what is taking hold.

- August

pusher robot

21st August 2008, 07:09

Is there a difference between apathy and general contentment?

LSD

21st August 2008, 07:46

Apathy is a sign of progresss. You gotta be fed before you can become apathetic.

It's not a political movement, it's the sign of the times.

Conquer or Die

21st August 2008, 07:54

Most everyone I know has righteous indignation of some sort. It's usually inappropriately aimed at Macro politics (Obama versus McCain) and carries with it the biases that ignorance brings (xenophobia).

Just because more college students don't start yelling at each other about who is hotter: Ayn Rand or Karl Marx; doesn't mean that they don't care about things. Most, if not all people do.

American working class apathy is bullshit. The white middle class got what they wanted when they upgraded to Fords and two story houses. Now their kids want to smoke pot and complain about anti-white racism on college campuses.

shorelinetrance

21st August 2008, 07:58

nihilism is what is taking hold.

- August

i see you take that as a negative? :lol:

Bud Struggle

21st August 2008, 12:24

People aren't apathetic. They just have different interests than you Communists. In fact people are quite enthused about things that interest them.

http://www.fifa.com/mm/photo/tournament/competition/2007-08-15t161717z_01_tou03_rtridsp_3_soccer-champions_15026_full-lnd.jpg

http://obamawill.com/obama.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/images/blogs/tvdecoder/posts/0108/american-idol.jpg

http://www.soulforce.org/images/osteen_lakewood.jpg

They are just enthused about the things happy people are interested in--enjoying their lives. The problem is you Communists with you gloom and doom aren't putting forth a marketable product for the masses.

Brother Pusher is correct--people are content with the status quo.

Lynx

21st August 2008, 12:43

They don't make speeches like they used to.

pusher (Wall-E?) is correct: shoving is the answer

Killfacer

21st August 2008, 15:03

yes TOMK a picture of two mediocre football players, some black bloke with a pin head, three fat judges off a talent show, a slimy looking american freak and a building full of fucking freaks. Yes this is why the population is suffering fro ma severe bout of apathy.

I agree with pusher, people are too content to bother. Even working class families have big TVs lots of food etc

Jazzratt

21st August 2008, 15:10

One of my godawful should-never-have-been-allowed-to-see-the-light-of-day ideas on how to wake apathetic people up, http://www.revleft.com/vb/some-my-ideas-t83188/index.html

Fix'd

freakazoid

21st August 2008, 16:39

I think TomK is correct, for the most part. In that while they are enthused in things that interest them, they are not so much when it comes to the situation of capitalism and how things are going.

Fix'd

Thanks for offereing a well thought out critic of my idea, :rolleyes:

Qwerty Dvorak

21st August 2008, 17:08

Is there a difference between apathy and general contentment?
Well apathy would be a result of general contentment, but surely there are other causes of apathy than contentment.

I agree with LSD though.

danyboy27

21st August 2008, 23:23

tomk is kinda right when he tell that communism is not a good seller.
communism could be sold like everything is sold to the population,but people selling it still using the old ways.

the web 2.0 is somehow a manifestation of socialism/communism; global blogs, global sharing, file sharing, forum etc, all that is making people sticking together.

But yea, according to how the global population see it, communism could be litteraly sold to the masses, and for that, you have to keep it simple and enjoyable. Envisaging that people will wake themselves up is idealistic, I would seriously love that, but well, that how that century work.

i think i am gonna make a topic about this.

RGacky3

22nd August 2008, 22:30

Apathy has nothing to do with contentment, it has to do with hopelessness. Some of the most idealistic people are young middle class people, who really hav'nt experienced how powerful Capitalism and the State are, and still have hope, also some of the most nihilistic and apathetic people, are the ones who have nothing, who have no hope.

Many people in the states just see no alternative, and Communism, for them, or Socialism, is'nt a viable alternative, fighting the Capitalists or the State just seams impossible, so better just to go along with it, and try your best to get by.

Many Slaves, if not most slaves in history never revolted, they just accepted their fate, because they saw no alternative, thats just how it was, they were apathetic, but I doubt content.

Die Neue Zeit

23rd August 2008, 09:44

Why are there one-sided answers in this thread? Some say it's mere contentment, yet others say it's disillusionment. Aren't both valid? Mind you, the "contentment" can only go so far (a petit-bourgeois whom I know well lamented about the growing wealth gap), so I posit a third answer: a lack of time. All three answers reveal a democratic deficit which even the politically correct mainstream should have the brains to acknowledge.

gla22

23rd August 2008, 15:39

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n193/ridgway22/life.jpg

Most people are content. The U.S is on the top of the world and U.S citizens have a good standard of living.

Die Neue Zeit

23rd August 2008, 16:32

^^^ I doubt that "working-class" (using liberal standards here) Americans who don't vote because they're too "busy" are content.

trivas7

23rd August 2008, 17:09

I think TomK is correct, for the most part. In that while they are enthused in things that interest them, they are not so much when it comes to the situation of capitalism and how things are going.

It's a sad state of affairs that what people are interested is the fluff of media, they have effectively given up control over their own lives to others.

mikelepore

23rd August 2008, 18:23

People are largely apathetic because they realise they are in a shit situation but think that they can't do anything about it.

That's right. The way I think of it is: It's a conceptual problem. the way some people make conceptual errors about nature, thinking that the sun revolves around the earth, this conceptual error is about the structure of society. Education of the working class has to be targeted to the point that the system of doing things is the cause of our problems -- explain how -- and we have the ability to rearrange institutions and adopt new social systems -- explain how.

pusher robot

23rd August 2008, 18:30

^^^ I doubt that "working-class" (using liberal standards here) Americans who don't vote because they're too "busy" are content.

Why would you doubt that? That would mean that political change is so valueless to them that they'd rather spend the 15 minutes doing almost anything else. Sort of like the way that I'm always "too busy" to wash my car because having a clean car is so unimportant to me that I'd literally rather sit on my ass doing nothing and just wait for it to rain.

ships-cat

23rd August 2008, 20:28

My thoughts on apathy are that.....

... pah, can't be bothered. Maybe I'll post tomorrow.

Meow Purr :D

MarxSchmarx

26th August 2008, 21:08

My thoughts on apathy are that.....

... pah, can't be bothered. Maybe I'll post tomorrow.

Meow Purr :D

That's a pretty freaking cute response.

AW:

The lack of meaningful value in one's life and life activities is also known as nihilism. Consumerism, spectacle politics, the death of God, the polarization of the classes, etc... are all responsible for this movement into nihilism. Apathy is what we see, but nihilism is what is taking hold.

What is strange is that ethical nihilism isn't so much mistaken as it is incoherent. A true nihilist cannot embrace nihilism. Thus, it is self-defeating, and I would argue, this inherent contradiction is symptomatic of the contradiction found in the alienation of the modern worker from the fruits of his labor.

In any event, out of curiosity, how have you tried to avoid the "crisis of nihilism"? Would you recommend others to follow your suggestions?

ships-cat

26th August 2008, 22:42

That's a pretty freaking cute response.

Why thank you :D

I'm a Cat... what do you expect ? Passages from Heideger ?

In regard nihilism and the disconnect between a "modern worker" and the "fruits of his/her labour"; I would suggest that you are completely missing the point. The "workers" are neither nihilistic, or non-nihilistic; the paradigm itself is jejune and irrelevant. THAT is the "disconnect".

Meow Purr :)

Dust Bunnies

26th August 2008, 23:32

Workers couldn't care less due to the fact that they are fed food and propaganda every night.

Bud Struggle

27th August 2008, 00:05

Why thank you :D

I'm a Cat... what do you expect ? Passages from Heideger ?

In regard nihilism and the disconnect between a "modern worker" and the "fruits of his/her labour"; I would suggest that you are completely missing the point. The "workers" are neither nihilistic, or non-nihilistic; the paradigm itself is jejune and irrelevant. THAT is the "disconnect".

Meow Purr :)

The workers are doped with religion, sex and TV
but their still fuckin' Proletarians as far as I could see.

revolution inaction

27th August 2008, 00:19

Apathy causes ignorance, and ignorance causes apathy.
"I cant change anything so why bother?" <- ignorance, things can be changed
"things aren't the bad" <- ignorance again

Socialist18

27th August 2008, 04:28

Maybe people would be more enthusiastic about Communism if the books about it were easier to read, they are allegedly supposed to appeal to the working class, well I'm working class and I cant fucking read a thing from Marx/Engels/Lenin without my big mother fucking dictionary. Theres too many word in these books that the working class just wasn't taught to know. Maybe they appealed to the working class in the 19th century but today I see it being different.

People don't want to refer to a dictionary every 5 fucking minutes when reading something, they just want to read it through with ease and get into it. I've talked to many people about this and all of them agree that reading Marx/Engels/Lenin is a problem due to its wording.

The philosophical chapters of Anti-Duhring are particularly hard going for newcomers to communism, its whole style is absurd and it can turn people of.

People are used to ease with everything, they don't want to have to go to uni just to read a fucking book, they want everything easy here and now.

This is worth some thought if you want to attract people to communism.