Who will care when no one else does

[ASKDodge]

It may just be the UK, but it seems as though voter turn out, in the UK at least, is significantly down.

Is it that democracy has become boring, or is it the younger generation's ignorance to the ideals of freedom of speech and the other civil rights that come with our political system. It just seems that younger people have no ambition, whether individual or national in scope, and would rather live their lives either on state benefits or in a dead end job.

Where are the new entrepreneurs, inventors and thinkers that will take over from those who have defined our past and present?

I am afraid that my country is in the grip of a dictatorship of laziness. A system that is for all intents and purposes a democracy, albeit one where all politicians are the same. Everyone is content as long as no one upsets the balance that allows for such a lack of ambition in modern society.

The laws of nature and survival have been massively disrupted by society where the lazy survive and procreate en mass in an ever growing cycle of ignorance and apathy.

I think that all I really want to hear is people's opinions on this matter and maybe some details of what is happening within their own political systems and societies.

[adrshepard]

At 4/22/09 04:01 PM, ASKDodge wrote: Is it that democracy has become boring, or is it the younger generation's ignorance to the ideals of freedom of speech and the other civil rights that come with our political system. It just seems that younger people have no ambition, whether individual or national in scope, and would rather live their lives either on state benefits or in a dead end job.

That's a lot to draw from nothing besides voter turnout. Incidentally, voter turnout from young people will always be low because the vast majority of them are not independent citizens. They can cruise along, surviving for the most part on their parents' money, and since most election issues don't have any real bearing on young people themselves, simple idealism only goes so far. Young people don't really have a reason to take voting very seriously. That changes as they start working for a living and have more things to lose.

Where are the new entrepreneurs, inventors and thinkers that will take over from those who have defined our past and present?

How do you know they don't already exist?

[ASKDodge]

I agree with a lot of the points you brought up about people not wanted to lose what they have, but my problem is of what people are happy with. The education system here is geared towards to examination that true learning and those disillusioned with it are ready to sit back and allow the state to take care of their lives. These people have children who copy the exact mistakes of their parents and the cycle continues and gets larger.

I'm not asking the population to be pushed to extremes, but when history is ignored to the detriment of the future I just feel like we are walking ourselves to mediocrity and a world where no one cares enough to make things better.

Taking the American War of Independence as a precedent. It took a small group of people who believed that things could change for the better to inspire people to defy an empire and create a new nation based on the ideals that they believed would allow for a society based on freedom and justice. Its not conflict that I'm asking for, just a belief that things can and always can be better if you care and work hard enough.

However, today's society seems hell-bent on maintaining the status quo at the expense of progress and ambition.

[Generalissimus]

At 4/23/09 02:49 PM, Transkar wrote: Whoever said democracy was the best government system?

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." -Winston Churchill

There are problems with every government system. A perfect one has yet to be found.

[ringy]

At 4/23/09 03:35 PM, Generalissimus wrote:

At 4/23/09 02:49 PM, Transkar wrote: Whoever said democracy was the best government system?

There are problems with every government system. A perfect one has yet to be found.

The best government is the one that the people is happy with, and so that generally entails a freer government that can adapt to the situation, transitioning from recessions to economic booms fairly smoothly.