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Politically Activate Yourself
To quote my current hero George Monbiot “This is the first generation that hasn’t had to struggle to be politically involved and as a result we take it too much for granted”.
We do.
We love to sit back having academic discussions about how the government is doing it all wrong and get angry at how much tax we pay for how little we get and how people like us aren’t looked after… But we never get off our butts and TELL our Government.
Voting is not enough, especially if you vote for a large party. You COULD be voting for any number of different policies and who knows what is important to you? Do you vote for National because you see a bunch of fat in the Labour Government? Do you vote for Labour because you like the idea that a woman leads our country? Or is it because of Kiwi Saver? Are you now not going to vote for them because ‘it’s time for a change’ or is it because they are setting up a free trade agreement with China and you cannot believe a country that refuses to go nuclear and that has an international reputation as a ‘good guy’ is going to support what China is doing in Tibet?
Nobody knows.
So the big lesson this year that we ALL need to learn, is that it’s time to tell them.
Here is a good start. Some people have been voicing their opinion on biking in Wellington loudly, for a long time. Now the council wants to know what YOU think. So tell them, flood them with responses so instead of the usual loonies and few who care deeply, lets give them thousands of replies and start this political activism rolling.
Lets not insult those who still have no voice by failing to use ours.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:29 am
That’s awesome writing Nat. Bravo. :)
April 1st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Well said.
I think that maybe the problem is that people don’t have a convenient (read: a really, really freaking easy) way of communicating with the government. There’s still a huge division between the ruling class and us plebians - I certainly don’t feel like I could get my voice heard without working really hard, so why bother, amiright? I sometimes think that people don’t really want change, instead, they want someone to make decisions for them so that they have something to complain about.
I also think that maybe I should actually go back to blogging so I can stop spamming yours with my rants =P
April 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Kelle, please don’t… You make me look popular!
But please do because I am interested.
Oh the decisions!
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Kelle: I think it’s pretty well established that politicians (especially) pay attention to what people say in proportion to how much effort was put into the communication.
They’ll pretty much ignore petitions.
Lots of individual emails get more attention than mass petitions.
Faxes get more attention than emails.
Phone calls get more attention than faxes.
Personal visits get more attention than phone calls.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 am
I agree petitions are dumb because the effort is only like 2 seconds,
personalised emails would have attention paid to them if they flooded in by the hundreds or thousands.
Personal visits only get more attention because I imagine its quite rare still.
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Bruce: Agreed. So in order to be heard, you have to care enough to put in a large amount of effort and time. Therefore, you probably have to be driven by something quite strong. In my - admittedly limited - experience (mostly to my own generation), many people aren’t. I’m not going to speculate as to why - that’s a complex issue.
Nat: I has a blog now. I bet it’s mostly going to be extended responses to your posts… You have this way of getting me all worked up, and then self-righteous enough to firmly believe that the world NEEDS to hear what I have to say on the subject :) Yay for the truly democratic internet?
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Kelle,
That’s the nicest thing (I think?!?) Anyone has said to me in ages :)
I think we take the wrong approach to just how HARD it is to be involved. It’s not like its a hassle or anything really. What is hard is suddenly finding you DON’T have the freedom to get angry about stuff. When I first went to www.theyworkforyou.org.nz (just one example of someone making it easier to get involved) I was horrified to find that there were like 4 bills CURRENTLY being passed that made me furious.
The whole POINT of the internet is to make life easier. The whole POINT of democracy is that the majority rules. We have both these things and people who are setting it up to make it easy for us to participate.
I disagree that you have to strongly believe in something, I almost think it should just be something we do as part of our day, as in ‘huh, they are passing that law about bottom trawling today, I’m not that keen on it…’ which leads to clicking on that ministers email address and saying ‘not into that, heres why’.
Done.
I know there is the ‘human nature’ argument, but I think we constantly get confused between humans being inherently lazy, and our current society promoting laziness.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Hmm, you’ll have to excuse the constantly cynical standpoint, because I do agree with you on many points there.
How awesome would it be if most people were a) up to date enough with politics to have valid views on them and b) confident enough in those views to do something about it? That would make for a wonderful society and be truly democratic.
HOWEVER, I don’t think that this will be the case for some time since people are not so much lazy, but apathetic. For example a friend said to me last year that she didn’t vote, and no intention of doing so. I asked why and she said that she didn’t know enough about the parties she was voting for. Flabbergasted, I responded with a “but the information is all available!”. She didn’t seem at all motivated to even begin to look into it, just happy to right off her vote and not be bothered.
There are awesome people like you, and Claire who really do get worked up when seeing things that are completely and utterly wrong or unfair. But the unfortunate fact remains, that there are people who just don’t care, or care for ten seconds and then do nothing about it (I suspect, the majority - though perhaps not in Wellington). It would be SO cool if if wasn’t that way, but from where I’m standing, it is :(
That said, I do think things are changing, our generation is much more awesomer than the baby boomers. Though they did give us Led Zeppelin…