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Political Fatigue and Anti-Political Thought

An article on the reasons for political apathy. Discusses influences of politicians, elections, mass media, public education, over-work and culture.

Author: Richard Adams-blackburn

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We all know people who say they’re simply not interested in politics. It’s boring, it’s pointless, it’s dry, it’s frustrating, they say. I always used to be surprised by this attitude. To me it seemed as ridiculous as those who say they don’t like books or reading. How could people not care about politics? Politics is about how their fellow human beings are getting along; the distribution of resources and organisation of society - are they just being selfish? And even if they are, don’t they know that the policies of government directly affect them? But of course there are good reasons for this culture of anti-political thought. I suppose its largely to do with what people associate with politics when they consider it: corrupt and unpleasant politicians, bureaucrats wasting time and resources, ineffective and slow parliamentary processes, issues that seem trivial and so on. I’m not going to argue that it’s all the government’s fault that people don’t have enough interest in politics (although it is partly to blame - it’s always to blame damn it!). I believe the causes can be broken down into five or six categories: individual politicians, elections, the mass media, public education, over-work and culture. (Of course there are those people who are too lazy or selfish to care, but there’s not a great deal one can do about them other than try to make them aware of issues and get them to see how they relate to them personally).

Politicians

The behaviour of politicians certainly goes a long way to turn people off politics altogether. Not a week goes by that we don’t hear about this or that politician embezzling government funds, taking advantage of their privileged position and neglecting their constituents. Politicians are paid large salaries (though not nearly as large as corporate CEOs, don’t get me started), get driven around in fancy cars, and travel to exotic places to speak with foreign dignitaries. In other words, they separate themselves in almost every way from those they purport to champion. Most people simply don’t have faith in their so-called representatives - many polls have been taken to prove this point. This is a function of the system we live in, we give these people power, it is inevitable that they will abuse it (of course there are the rare ones who don’t - and many who don’t get caught -, but they are still part of a system which is fundamentally corrupt). So why do we vote for these people in the first place? I’m not trying to patronise, but simply, they trick us or bribe us into it.

Elections

The election is the biggest charade in parliamentary politics - no wonder people get turned off (and even if they do get interested during the election they soon lose interest afterwards). During elections politicians have on their best disguises. They dress up for the camera because it will be ready at any time to pick up on any of their foibles. They spend most of their time defending themselves personally and droning on for hours on nebulous concepts such as ‘family values’ and ‘what is means to be a Kiwi, American, Aucklander, European etc.’, the immense danger of allowing more immigrants into the country, and so on. Then there are the election bribes: tax cuts being the prime example. They try to buy votes with fancy marketing campaigns, playing on people’s sensibilities. They preen and suck up to ‘worthy’ causes, kiss babies and shake hands voraciously. Debates between leaders of major parties rarely if ever get to the real issues; they just end up in a cycle of self-promotion and attacks on one another’s credentials.

People are not stupid and many see this as the joke it is and don’t appreciate being treated like idiots. They associate this sort of behaviour with what ‘politics’ is actually about, and it tires them out. And fair enough too. It never seems during elections that any of these politicians really wants what’s best for their community - they just want to take power and run things. But people still vote for the lesser evil, because they feel there is no other choice. And even when they do vote (a meagre level of participation to say the least), election fraud commonly occurs all over the world, so their vote can be made almost completely worthless. Many, of course, abstain from voting altogether, but these are not counted as votes against the government, they are not counted as anything other than laziness and apathy.

The Media

The media sometimes becomes saturated by ‘political’ issues, but almost always under-reports issues of real value. Both of these can lead to political apathy and misinformation. When the media is saturated with political issues, they are usually trivial and narrow - such as when a politician is caught cheating on their partner. The media publishes story after story of analyses of this person’s career up till the incident occurred, what it might mean for them in the future, reactions from other politicians, reactions from think tanks and other organisations, and so on. People understandably get sick of this after a while, and begin to think that this is all that politics is about.

This leads to my second point: under-reporting. If the media is concentrating on trivial and ephemeral issues, it can’t properly address more substantial and general ones. These don’t sell advertising: frivolous, new, vapid things do. Also, the media’s bias for localism comes into play here. If a catastrophic or important political event occurs in a faraway place, it receives much less coverage than it would if it was a local issue. This is somewhat understandable because we are naturally attracted to things that directly affect us, but it is unfortunate when people get false impressions about the magnitude of certain events. It is not always innocent, of course. Often there is no excuse for spending, for example about five seconds on the death of 1000 people in Iraq in a stampede, and five minutes on the antics of some royal or celebrity.

There can also be more cynical and political motives for under-reporting events. As an example, during the 70s when Indonesia invaded East Timor and slaughtered thousands of civilians, the Western media barely batted an eyelid, this was because Indonesia was an ally of the West. But during the genocide in Cambodia the media had a field day, largely due to the fact that the genocide was committed by Communist enemies. [See the excellent documentary on the media, Noam Chomsky -Manufacturing Consent for more on this, and the evils of the mass media in general]. Misrepresentation of events such as this leads to people developing very skewed ideas about world affairs (which we probably all hold to a certain extent), and being less concerned than appropriate about issues that the ruling elite wishes to conceal. If we’re not exposed to the problems that actually exist, how can we be interested in fighting them?

Public Education

With state-run education, it is more a case of what it neglects to do than what it does positively that has an effect on political interest. Children learn very little about the political process or current affairs in school. If anything, they are taught that the system we are living in at the moment is unchangeable and desirable anyway. However, enforced ignorance is clearly an easier option: if they don’t know, they can’t complain. History and social studies are rarely compulsory subjects, and even when they are taught they present things from a position favourable towards governments (particularly the ruling one). Clearly economics classes are no good - really being ‘Capitalism 101’ by any other name. This is really unavoidable as long as education remains state-run (I’m not advocating private education either, I’m talking about the syllabus itself). Parents also pass on their political apathy (and, of course, bias) onto their children indirectly.

Education at a tertiary level obviously provides more opportunities for the exploration of political topics. Unfortunately, many politics papers are taught in as vocational rather than educational, often preparing students for civil service jobs. Even political theory courses focus very little on anti-government and anti-state ideas. They do exist in universities, certainly, but to a negligible extent. Students today aren’t as politically active as they used to be either (don’t I sound like an old fogey yearning for the good old days of ramped up student protest movements). Students are now disciplined in their political activities by huge debts - and they have less time to find out about political issues during and after university as a result. I can only really speak about New Zealand, but I presume that other countries have found a similar trend - universities are now primarily employment factories, not institutions for the promotion of ideas. This is caused, I believe, by the dominant political and cultural climate rather than the universities themselves, however.

Over-work and culture

Leading on from the previous post on education, there is now much more pressure on young people to work hard to acquire a good salary. On the one hand, it is good that there is more opportunity, but on the other, this constant focus on employment leads to even greater political apathy. With more and more consumer products tempting people every day, and because living conditions are generally higher (in the west at least), members of the middle and upper classes have less time and (from their perspective) fewer reasons to be interested in political issues. Everybody seems to think that politics just doesn’t affect them. There are simply too many distractions in today’s consumer society. Isn’t this awfully convenient for governments?

Even if people are interested in politics, there are costs to be taken into account when becoming involved in political action. Even something as simple as organising unions at one’s workplace takes a significant amount of time and energy, especially when the employer is openly hostile towards such activity, as they often are.

The general culture of a consumerist society has a strong influence over how politically interested people are. It can be seen as ‘unfashionable’ to be interested in politics (especially left-wing politics). This, I believe, is a function of politics usually being portrayed as pretty much irrelevant to ordinary people’s lives. In such a society people feel as if they are unable to change anything for the better at the same time as a feeling that things are actually alright as they are. These assumptions are both incorrect; the latter more so than the former, however. Things are patently NOT alright as they are. People who think this are merely not exposed or aware of the immense problems the world faces, (or, worse, simply don’t care). All of us have the potential to make positive change, also. The only problem is (here’s where the impact of our culture comes in), it takes effort, and even sacrifice, possibly even - shock, horror - an awareness that some of the institutions we contribute to are immoral and illegitimate. We in the West are often not willing to sacrifice our luxury to help others; almost everyone is guilty of this. This is an unpopular attitude, I’m sure, but we can’t always blame someone else - sometimes we must take responsibility.

In some ways, from an anarchist perspective, the disillusionment many have with politics can be seen as a positive thing. That is, if people are already disillusioned with politics, there is may be a better chance that they will see anarchism as a feasible alternative (because, as Batman once said, anarchy is an anti-political statement). But the problem is, of course, that many have simply stopped caring about politics in general, and will see anarchist propaganda as just more junk and lies. We should try and use this disillusionment to persuade people that it is not politics itself which is pointless, it is the system we currently live in - a system which desperately requires change. Being involved and interested in politics for the genuine good of others is a noble and just pursuit. The only challenge is, how do we get people to listen?

About Author

I am an anarcho-communist from Auckland, New Zealand. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and philosophy from the University of Auckland. Please go to my blog at http://anarchism.tk/blog . This blog focuses on anarchist theory and is basically a propaganda vehicle to convince readers of the evils of capitalism and the possibility of a freer society.

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Political Fatigue and Anti-Political Thought