ive Reasons Youth Apathy is eaching Epidemic Proportions

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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.

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( 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.

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March 23/2005