Apathy vs. Ignorance...You Be the Judge
I want to avoid the issue of Politics today, if I can. However, it is a compulsion and it may get the better of me. We'll see. Instead, I want to delve into what I have long observed in the people I have met.
The vast majority of people I talk to seem completely uninformed about current events. They simply do not have an opinion on anything. They react emotionally when cornered, but beyond that can't muster the energy to even investigate anything on their own. Whatever happened to doing a bit of reading and coming to your own conclusions? Use your brains, for heaven's sake.
It was being fed-up with this rampant phenomenon that pushed me into the blogosphere. I was desperate for well-thought out arguments and healthy debate. I enjoy the academic exercise and I genuinely care what other people think. I believe it is every citizen's civic duty to be well-informed and have an opinion.
Now, I'm not saying you have to read the newspaper front to back everyday. Most of the time this news is old before it hits the newsstands these days. But I don't even know many people that read any magazines other than People and US. And it sickens me. I don't think of myself as incredibly well-informed, but based on the other people I know...I'm scary. You'd think I was a news junkie by comparison. These people don't even watch network or cable news. It's like they are in walking comas.
For example: Do you have any idea how many people I've told about Memogate who had no idea that anything of the like had happened? Incredible.
Wake up people! Wake up! (All 3 of my readers would be excluded from this group, of course.)
So the question remains. Do they just not care...or are they ignorant?
