APATHY QUOTES III
quotations about apathy
Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy.
JOSEPH CONRAD
Heart of Darkness
Many of the policies promoted at the local level are often very technical, which makes it quite easy to get lost in the details as research about policies are being done, and this technical nature of these policies is another reason why many voters tend to sit out these local elections. Their apathy is rational, not ignorant. If people are unable to understand the details of a given policy issue, it would be rational for them to not pay attention to local politics at all, but I am imploring people to not take this approach. Learning about these issues can be tough, but local politics is where the impact of your vote is the most palpable. You can see the new sidewalk being built; you can see the new textbooks your school has received; you can see a library being built for your community. These are just some of the benefits of being cognizant of your local politics.
JACOB PIERCE
"Trump isn't the only one you should pay attention to", Vanderbilt Hustler, February 24, 2016
Apathy is the greatest withholder of peace.
BETTY WILLIAMS
"Apathy is the biggest challenge to peace, says Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams", XPress Dubai, December 16, 2015
Our political apathy is the only reason a candidate so brash and callous could make headlines day after day. Grown adults smirked and shook their heads as young people turned to comedy for their news, as if the degradation of democracy by our parents' complacency was not the primary reason for our distrust of the media. These are the same young people who, in turn, reduced political discourse to memes and clickbait, making an instant celebrity of any public figure capable of eliciting the sort of shock needed to garner attention in a 24/7 media orgy of reality TV and journalistic sensationalism.
RAGHAV SHARMA
"The Donald we deserve", America Blog, March 10, 2016
And of course apathy is alive and well every election when more people choose to stay home instead of voting.
JIM MUIR
"'Trump Movement' is not hard to understand", The Southern Illinoisan, March 10, 2016
Voter apathy is a problem nationwide. I think people are largely disengaged because they feel like they can't make a difference, and they feel skeptical about politics.
J. J. HOLLIE
interview, "The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce president", Community Impact Newspaper, March 9, 2016
Apathy is the outgrowth of their inability to change the world.
GEORGE DAVID MILLER & CONRAD P. PRITSCHER
On Education and Values: In Praise of Pariahs and Nomads
Apathy is the capitulation of personhood, the refusal to grow, to become who we really are. It is the ultimate cop-out -- the insistence that things will never change, so why should we.
ALBERT J. LACHANCE
Cultural Addiction: The Greenspirit Guide to Recovery
Apathy borders upon folly.
PUBLIUS SYRUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity, miscarriage, premature old age, grumbling youth, there is a decline in the arts, indifference to science, and injustice in all its forms.
ANTON CHEKHOV
letter to A.S. Suvorin, Dec. 27, 1889
I didn't care about anything. And there's a freedom in apathy, a wild, dizzying liberation on which you can almost get drunk.
LIONEL SHRIVER
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Mental apathy is stoicism, a calmness of mind incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain, or passion.
N. WEBSTER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Apathy is a dangerous habit, and history is its greatest testimony.
SHALVA GOZLAND
"Political Incorrectness", Huffington Post, February 19, 2016
Apathy is merely a learned behavior, a habit that can be changed.
SUSANNA BARBEE
"How to motivate apathetic students", Asheville Citizen-Times, February 29, 2016
Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.
JAMES BALDWIN
If Beale Street Could Talk
Presumably, apathy is the greatest danger to truly representative political systems; without the vote, with blind choice, or with one choice, the representative character of democracy is lost.
HERBERT I. LONDON
Social Science Theory: Structure and Application
It's a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares any more; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.
RICHARD YATES
Revolutionary Road
Apathy is a risk-aversion strategy.
JOOST VAN LOON
Risk and Technological Culture
Apathy is our enemy. We want to make sure that everybody knows that every vote is important.
DEBBIE GUDENAS
"Hillary Clinton wins SC Democratic primary Saturday", WSOC TV, February 28, 2016
No, it's a sign of the democracy that's anemic. It's a sign that people just know the system is rigged. It's a sign that they know big money dictates and shapes the destiny of the government and the society. Unfortunately, the dominant response is one of staying away rather than trying to participate and reshape it. So we can understand, in a certain sense, the apathy, but the apathy is in no way justified. We've got to participate, not just in the ballot box, but, as Sister Melina says, we've got to hit the streets. We've got--we have to have organizing and mobilizing and have to be willing to go to jail. And some of us, actually, have to be willing to die.
CORNEL WEST
"Bernie, Hillary or Revolution in the Streets? Cornel West, Dolores Huerta & Black Lives Matter Debate", Democracy Now, March 9, 2016