ive Reasons Youth Apathy is
eaching Epidemic Proportions

 

ee

 

hy are youth so disenfran-
chised? Although this
question is hardly new, the
answers seem as elusive as ever. We don’t
seem to even care all that much about
the world around us, much less take any
action to change it. Some days I think
youth apathy exists as a counterbalance
to the sheer weight of psychic debris we
pick up by the time we’re 19. By that age
any semi-sentient being can see how
squirrelly this world is.
Here, in no particular order, is a list of
reasons to remain apathetic and just give

up:

1. Corporations use money to exert influ-
ence on politics, thereby assuring that
they will always win, as well as ensuring
them more money to buy more influ-
ence, ad infinitum. “It doesn’t matter
who you vote for, you always wind up
with a King.”

2. The environment is so far gone that
even a cataclysm wiping out half the
world’s population wouldn’t do much to
solve its problems. It seems quite hope-
less.

3. Inundation with unreasonable expec-
tations of unlimited capitalist expansion
has_ produced a “hermiting effect”
among the workers upon whose backs
said expansion takes place. I mean that
the general worker, employed by a com-
pany that uses corporate speak to encase
unethical behaviour in politically correct
terms, seems to end up disenfranchised
and apathetic due in part to the schism
between their “work self” and “home
self.” These divided people often end up
alone and frustrated, or at least I did
when it happened to me.

 

Ni oe

BC’s New University in Kamloops

6 | www.theotherpress.ca

 

 

  

( The Way Things Sometimes Are >
)
CF Miley, Opinions Editor

 

4. I may never get to find out firsthand
whether or not money can buy happi-
ness. That’s depressing.

5. This world is a myriad of suffering for
those with the eyes to see and eats to
hear. Show me a person who claims they
don’t suffer, and [ll show you a liar.
Suffering equals pain. Pain equals aver-
sion. Aversion equals escape. Escape
equals apathy. Our aversion to the natu-
ral rhythms of pain and_ suffering
overloads the animalistic part of our
brains, triggering a fight-or-flight
response, but we can’t quite pin down
exactly what it is we are supposed to be
fighting or fleeing. This lack of a definite
stimulus that we can name or blame
causes a slow rise in our anxiety levels,
eventually triggering a psychosis that
often culminates in more suffering. The
cycle continues.

So, there you go. Five decent reasons
to remain apathetic. You’re welcome.
Next week, maybe we'll look at five good
reasons to take part in the glorious splen-
dour that is the democratic process.

Arts (BA)
Science (BSc)
Business (BBA}
Education (BEd)
Journalism (Bjour}

ACE
(BTM)

Social Work (BSW)
Fine Arts (BFA)

EL err ¢a
Science (NRS)

Applied Computing
Science (BTACS)

 

March 23/2005