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But "activism" on what? Today in the US, there are many real and serious threats to our way of life. But many people, perhaps even most, are apathetic. We just don't seem to care enough to really DO anything about anything.
We are surrounded by a cacophony of bad news and warnings - future social-security bankruptcy, education and health-care decline, terrorism, the Iraqi war, Iran going nuclear, nuclear-powered Pakistan on the brink, global warming, AIDS in Africa, genocide in Darfur - the list goes on.
Activism on any one issue is rendered futile when overshadowed by too many others. It's just too much. So no one cares enough to do anything. That's Apathy, says Shannon Hays in a recent American Mensa magazine, "It is symptomatic of an insidious general malaise, rooted in a disturbing national detachment".
Perhaps most of us simply don't see what WE ourselves can do to change anything. And so we do nothing. We wait, expecting that today's worry will be forgotten after tomorrow's new bad news. And so important, major long-term issues like global-warming and social-security-bankruptcy are shelved for future generations to worry about.
The basic cause of Apathy is that most people are too busy with whatever they are busy with to DO anything. America's middle-class, the largest population segment, seriously threatened in a system dominated by the wealthy minority, can change everything through the democratic process. But it is manipulated into neutralizing itself by dividing its vote. Democracy rests with the undecided; and that instant-indecision is manipulated by money and media.
Then there's the problem of low voter turnout, another sign of Apathy. 50% simply don't bother to vote; 64% of voters aged 18-24 don't vote. And so change rests with the remainder. And they are split on the issues, leaving confused political candidates flip-flopping while they try to attract the undecided middle on the advice of their "handlers".
Who cares? About what?
The Opposite of Good is Apathy
Voter Apathy: The Missing Half of America
Voter apathy still plagues young Americans
