----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 6:43 AM Subject: Re: Inbred, was, something else
>
>
> Ian Murray wrote:
> >
> >
> > 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
================ They say they're apathetic. I didn't.
Ian