quotations about apathy
Beneath our communal apathy is the burbling outrage of students, parents and teachers, all searching for someone to blame. In our frustration we pass responsibility onto one another and are surprised when nothing changes.
BRENDAN FREEMAN
"Franklin County graduation rates are a symptom", Tallahassee Democrat, March 5, 2016
Apathy is a dangerous habit, and history is its greatest testimony.
SHALVA GOZLAND
"Political Incorrectness", Huffington Post, February 19, 2016
Slums may well be breeding-grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
CYRIL CONNOLLY
The Unquiet Grave
Apathy is never positive, and rarely harmless. To be apathetic is to be dispirited, empty of feeling. In its more extreme forms, it is a living death.
DONALD CAPPS
Deadly Sins and Saving Virtues
Apathy is the outgrowth of their inability to change the world.
GEORGE DAVID MILLER & CONRAD P. PRITSCHER
On Education and Values: In Praise of Pariahs and Nomads
Mental apathy is stoicism, a calmness of mind incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain, or passion.
N. WEBSTER
attributed, Day's Collacon
I am not a victim. I am alive, wide awake and free from the numbness of apathy.
ROKELLE LERNER
Daily Affirmations
It's enthusiasm, not apathy, that makes the world go 'round.
TONY ALESSANDRA
Charisma
Apathy is our enemy. We want to make sure that everybody knows that every vote is important.
DEBBIE GUDENAS
"Hillary Clinton wins SC Democratic primary Saturday", WSOC TV, February 28, 2016
Many of the policies promoted at the local level are often very technical, which makes it quite easy to get lost in the details as research about policies are being done, and this technical nature of these policies is another reason why many voters tend to sit out these local elections. Their apathy is rational, not ignorant. If people are unable to understand the details of a given policy issue, it would be rational for them to not pay attention to local politics at all, but I am imploring people to not take this approach. Learning about these issues can be tough, but local politics is where the impact of your vote is the most palpable. You can see the new sidewalk being built; you can see the new textbooks your school has received; you can see a library being built for your community. These are just some of the benefits of being cognizant of your local politics.
JACOB PIERCE
"Trump isn't the only one you should pay attention to", Vanderbilt Hustler, February 24, 2016
Apathy borders upon folly.
PUBLIUS SYRUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Presumably, apathy is the greatest danger to truly representative political systems; without the vote, with blind choice, or with one choice, the representative character of democracy is lost.
HERBERT I. LONDON
Social Science Theory: Structure and Application
I didn't care about anything. And there's a freedom in apathy, a wild, dizzying liberation on which you can almost get drunk.
LIONEL SHRIVER
We Need to Talk About Kevin
And of course apathy is alive and well every election when more people choose to stay home instead of voting.
JIM MUIR
"'Trump Movement' is not hard to understand", The Southern Illinoisan, March 10, 2016
Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.
JAMES BALDWIN
If Beale Street Could Talk
What about our alleged political apathy? Is that harder to disprove? There is a decent chunk of evidence that suggests young people are generally disinterested in elections. One study found that 24 per cent of young people didn't identify with any particular political party, compared to 7 per cent of older voters. But I don't think research showing young people are disengaged from the formal political process, and feel alienated from political parties, automatically means they don't care about key political issues. Polls regularly show that young people support progressive political change on key issues like marriage equality by a much higher margin than older Australians. The same pattern exists when looking at issues like action on climate change and our treatment of refugees. The biggest political advocacy organisation in the country, GetUp! is full of young, passionate campaigners striving to make a difference. Young people care about issues that affect them, like housing and education, as well as social justice issues that are about making the country a fairer place to live.
OSMAN FARUQI
"Let's stop the Millennial bashing", SBS, March 10, 2016
What is called "apathy" is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness on the part of the ordinary citizen, a feeling of impotence in the face of enormous power. It's not that people are apathetic; they do care about what is going on, but don't know what to do about it, so they do nothing, and appear to be indifferent.
HOWARD ZINN
Huffington Post, Jan. 28, 2010
It's a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares any more; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.
RICHARD YATES
Revolutionary Road
No, it's a sign of the democracy that's anemic. It's a sign that people just know the system is rigged. It's a sign that they know big money dictates and shapes the destiny of the government and the society. Unfortunately, the dominant response is one of staying away rather than trying to participate and reshape it. So we can understand, in a certain sense, the apathy, but the apathy is in no way justified. We've got to participate, not just in the ballot box, but, as Sister Melina says, we've got to hit the streets. We've got--we have to have organizing and mobilizing and have to be willing to go to jail. And some of us, actually, have to be willing to die.
CORNEL WEST
"Bernie, Hillary or Revolution in the Streets? Cornel West, Dolores Huerta & Black Lives Matter Debate", Democracy Now, March 9, 2016
Apathy is a risk-aversion strategy.
JOOST VAN LOON
Risk and Technological Culture