In a recent opinion article in the Sagebrush (see cut-out below), GSA President Matt Smith goes through a laundry list of reasons why he perceives students are not becoming more actively engaged in local politics (from Don’t Have The Time to Major’s Not in Danger) without even coming close to addressing the real reason people don’t get involved in political matters: They just plain don’t care.
But Mr. Smith is not alone in his complete obliviousness to strident apathy of the general population, most everyone who cares to discuss such issues overlooks this incredibly pertinent fact. And yet it is only ever one side that cares to cast blame on the other, only the active have the inflated sense of righteousness to say that the Apathetic should be ashamed of their lack of action. Meanwhile, the Apathetic do not bother to point out that it is in fact the actors on stage (and not the sedated audience) that move the plot forward, whether it be to tragedy or farce.
In fact, if we were to examine the situation with an air of skepticism towards the typical claims, it would take but a moment to note that, much to chagrin of most of the platitudinous protestors, the University has never looked better. Nationally ranked, important colleges accredited, test scores going up. And this is all after considerable cutting and accommodation (stuff that’s been happening since even before I attended [and graduated from] UNR). This is because UNR is a good school with smart people at the helm making difficult decisions during difficult times.
And that’s why the rest of us can sit back and not give a damn. The people are good at these sorts of things are handling them. It’s the same principle that gives us electronics we don’t need to really understand, food we could never grow ourselves, and houses we could never build. We can have apathy in the vast majority of the world because the rest of the world has vast apathy of itself. This allows us to become focused and specialized and productive in ways the world has never seen. A keen understanding on the inner workings of memristors, the genetics of wheat strains, or even making a funny homevideo will better the human condition orders of magnitude above giving a single thought to political matters.
So let the apathy on such matters rise. Leave the movers and shakers of the world to move and shake it in the ways they would like to not only as some quasi-political-leader would have them. Let people alone to do their thing, to live their own life. And most importantly, do not get so self-righteous in your demands that they do as they wish.
Live and let apathy reign free.
