Apathy is pathetic

Apathy is pathetic.

Actually, apathy is a lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting. That sounds like a pretty apt definition of the situation in the United States as pertains to politics for a great number of people. And it seems pretty pathetic when people are so turned off by the practice of politics that they are unsure of who their elected representatives are - and don't care.

This is not to say that everyone should be a political animal but people should at least know who represents them in government and be at least minimally informed on the issues of the day. But there a great many people who are not. And that is worrisome.

Sure, everyone knows who Barack Obama (or President Obama) is - even if not everyone likes him. But they do not always know who the senators or representatives are. Heck, I suspect there is a good number of people who do not even know who the Vice-President (Joseph Biden) is. Sure, it is important to know who the president is but it is not (and should not be) the president who drives everything in the country. It is the Congress who should generate legislation but they have chosen to abrogate their responsibilities which, unfortunately, has also rendered them mostly invisible to the general public. Indeed, between their abrogation of responsibility and the high degree of partisan gridlock that has gripped the nation's capital, not to mention the constant campaigning that now consumes the majority of a politician's time instead of actually trying to run the country in a responsible manner, it should probably be no surprise that people pay little attention to their representatives.

In which case, I guess it really is not a big surprise why there is such apathy in the US when it comes to issues that matter in the running of the country.

Everyone has an opinion

...but not everyone can offer valid proof and evidence to support their opinions. Or the proof they do offer is of dubious origin, lies or urban legends among other things. And normally this is not a problem as everyone should have the right to openly express their opinions in my opinion. Heck, I know I have ideas and opinions that many other people cannot necessarily understand or agree with but the joy of being able to express them is rare in many parts of the world and should be appreciated by those who have that ability.

In some ways, that is why I have this blog. It offers me an opportunity to express ideas and opinions to a wide range of people who then have the option to read and either agree, disagree or even argue with me over them. However, to paraphrase one of my favorite quotes regarding the internet - well, I saw it on the internet so it *must* be true! That statement is very apropos when discussing blogs in particular as it is usually rather difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what you read online. In my own case, I tend to read various news sources to get my news - regional, national and international as well as from varying political angles. The great majority of those news sites are reputable (if not always deliberately propagandistic as in the case of certain sources from countries with less than free media) and there is a clear distinction between news and editorial commentary. And I do read the editorial commentary but at least I have the knowledge to distinguish facts from opinions.

I read very little in the way of blogs when it comes to facts. There are a few I read and most of those have very deliberate political opinions but I read them for what they are - opinions with occasional facts thrown in. I have one favorite that I have mentioned here before - Seeing Red in China - by an American living in China who does the best of any I have yet come across at explaining life in everyday China, without undue praise or criticism, to people who may otherwise never get to experience it. But it is still a blog with the opinions of a single individual and his experiences.

I was recently treated to the antithesis of that blog by another China-related blogger posting ideas that minimized responsibility for Mao for things that happened during his time in power. Against my better judgment, I responded asking for more info to support the writer's hypothesis and instead received the sort of conspiracy theory spouting that is, in my experience, far more common to blog writers who can write whatever they want without any sort of vetting prior to publication as would take place at more reputable news media or research outlets. In the end, I stopped responding as it was simply generating troll-like responses from others on the blog and, quite frankly, I have much less patience for that than I have when I was younger. While I was frustrated by the negative power of such ideas, not to mention the power of the internet to spread such bad ideas with no proof to support them, it did serve to remind me that I am still fairly lucky to not be inundated with such tripe and that hopefully the good will still outweigh the bad when it comes to the power of ideas and the internet.