Ian Murray wrote:
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> Not a year goes by without the Washington Post print articles and
> poll results on the apathy of the US citizenry
Rejecting the contempt for apathy -- coming to see what is called apathy as a legitimate right of citizenry -- was part of rather than merely a result of my becoming a marxist. Contemptuous attitudes towards "apathy" go back at least to Plato's _Republic_ (my favorite book and the classic of everything I hate). First of all, references to "apathy" usually refer to _voting_ habits -- that is, they assume that voting is quintessential political act when in fact elections (of _representatives_) are apolitical. Hence a failure to vote is definitely not apolitical, and may under many circustances be a central political act. Secondly, charges of apathy almost always prejudge the question of what should and should not be a political question.
If one sees the "apathy" as legitimate self-defense (conscious or spontaneous), then one has taken the first step in defining the responsibilities of political activists. Strange that "vanguard" should be so central to the pejorative jargon of anti-leninists, while "activist" (a synonym) is central to the eulogistic jargon of the same people.
Carrol