Overcoming Apathy: Key to Overcoming our Problems

[NoBushSpokenHere]

Any psychoanalysts here who could explain how to bring people out of an apathy state of mind? I am totally convinced most people understand the election was stolen but they are just too beat down to fight. They feel there is nothing that can be done to change things. How can we reach these people, or can they be reached?

I would think HOPE would help, but how do we give them hope? We did that last year prior to the election, but how do we give them an ounce of hope that things can be changed? How do we get them to join our cause?

[nashville_brook]

1. you are asking some valuable questions -- hope is important

but we have to have *confidence* in the vote. we have to know the time we take off of work isn't just "pissing in the wind."

that's not exactly what your question asks, tho - you want to know how to beat apathy. that's a diff question and I believe it requires being vested in the enterprise. we have to "vest" people from top to bottom.

if their issue is environmentalism -- they must feel their issue is vested in our part.
if it is economic prosperity -- they must know we will fight unfair trade.
it if is reproductive rights and privacy -- they must see their hopes reflected in our platform.

moreover -- before any election takes place -- these people must be VESTED in the enterprise. that means there must be an exchange of "skin." there has to be a solid committment on their part as well as ours. vestedness.

(just my quickie thought for the night)

[Fly by night]

5. Election reform is the foundation on which all other reforms are possible.

Brook, you should get involved in Tennessee's Gathering To Save Our Demcoracy. We meet again this Thursday evening (6-8 pm) off Woodmont.

PM me if you want details/directions. Same goes for other Orange Staters who read this.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

6. But...

the economy in Ohio is horrid, health care in Ohio is horrid - these same people who have been affected by both matters worked hard for the 2004 election. They have given up. They have lost hope of ever changing things. I speak with them about working for reform and they often tell me, "There is nothing that can be done." I explain what actions are being taken, etc., but they just cannot bring themselves to dream again. There has to be a way to wake them.

[Land Shark]

11. How can there be any confidence in a result when the data

and the analysis are kept completely secret?

of the millions of inferences left wide open to political speculation (aka punditry) some choose the inferences of impropriety and are called tinfoil by some others, others choose the inferences that something explains it all, but they have no rational basis for doing so.

When it comes to american elections, it's a faith based voting system stripped of any checks and balances, not SELF-government as Jefferson envisioned. I fail to see why any Democrat or any patriot would accept this condition for elections, instead of defending and re-creating a transparent integrity for them.

[xray s]

2. They aren't apathetic. They are hypnotized

People are hit with constant media barrage of political propaganda, advertisements hyping materialism, all wrapped around sexually exploitive, fear based "entertainment" to hook you in. Billions and billions of dollars worth, all carefully studied and selected to be maximally effective.

It is a wonder anyone can think at all in this country.

[napi21]

3. I don't think hope will help much.

I'm not a psychoanylist, but I believe the only thing that is going to make a difference is when the changes this Admin has made directly afect the individuals!

Lots of people really don't care about gay marriage one way or the other because it doesn't affect them directly.

Most who have reasonably secure jobs know outsourcing is wrong, but they don't pay much attention becasue it doesn't affect THEIR lives.

Nobody thinks the high deficit and fed debt is a good thing, but it's not their debt so it's not their problem.


When something happens that hurts THEM, you'll see them get off their a**es and do something!

[Time for change]

4. I think they're in denial

Most people are not ready to accept something that is really terrible, especially when they've been taught all their life that this is "the land of the free".

But if presented with enough evidence the denial can be broken through.

The really tough part though is that the MSM is a big obstacle. It's something that most people believe in. But even they can only go so far in telling people what is patently untrue.

My money is on gathering sufficient evidence to bring them out of their denial. I think that's our best hope. But it's an up hill fight.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

7. You may be right...... n/t

[GentryLange]

10. Evidence is important

But I think more and more videos are the most important tool we have. There's some great footage on the web. But we need to start getting more, and forcing friends and family to watch these things.

[Land Shark]

12. True, and the media 'firehose' will blow us past the most important

signposts along the way, unless we develop a capacity to highlight them and make sure they achieve the importance they deserve.

unless there's a consensus of corporate media, even a reported story may simply be left in the dust of a thousand stories the next day, even tho of less import.

[Carolab]

14. I don't think so. I think they just don't know what to do about it.

My fiance's daughter said her 90-year-old grandmother in a VERY small, VERY rural part of this state said she KNOWS that "they are stealing elections".

I think people know. They just don't know what to DO about it.

[GuvWurld]

8. Ask Questions, Provoke Confrontations With Contradictions

Perhaps instead of wondering what to tell people we should focus on what questions to ask. My suggestion is to concentrate on questions that lead people to recognize the cognitive dissonance they are experiencing. We don't necessarily have to use the phrase "cognitive dissonance" but we do have to help people see where they believe contradictory bits of information, in other words, where they are lying to themselves. I think this is so important because it illustrates that those in power are causing this paralyzing condition, responsible for so much apathy, and that doing so intentionally is a tactic on their part not just to fuck with our heads but to control us in almost a game-like way. Nobody wants to be toyed with. But few are coming to this perspective on their own and we would do well to bring them here. The techniques for doing this still need a lot of work though I have been calling it ruthless honesty.

[Land Shark]

9. If true, what are the mechanisms of denial and/or social control??

[BeFree]

13. Hope is in Arkansas, right?

Hope. Is on the way. (where'd I'd hear that before?) I once had some hope, but it gave way to
action.

Edward Abbey once said: The only cure for an ill democracy is more democracy.

If those lazy bastids don't get off their asses and stand up for their democratic republic, there is no hope.

A British friend once remarked: "Yall ain't got no sense of history". Had to agree.

Look, its us again' the world. We either save a bit of it or we don't. But we die trying, eh?