One of the best descriptions of personal indifference came from young author Zoe Trope when she wrote "No one cares. Apathy is a disease and some days I long for it." The siren song of laziness is probably dancing on the subconscious fringes of even the most motivated among us, myself included. Despite its sometimes-alluring promise, apathy should have no part in any Ball State University student's life.
Unfortunately, apathy is running rampant on campus, and, not surprisingly, no one seems to care.
It's easy to focus on so-called bigger problems with the excuse that what people are doing wrong is more important than what they aren't doing at all. Long ago, Eleanor Roosevelt recognized this tendency when she said "So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect."
You don't need the quotes of an author and one of the most loved humanitarians in history to understand apathy.
If you're anything like me, you see it in your classmates, co-workers, friends and even professors. You might even see it in the Daily News, as evidenced by the Ball State junior who candidly admitted in a Tuesday article that she wouldn't be voting in local elections because she wasn't thinking about it. A lackadaisical attitude toward some things can be dismissed, but when it comes to government a languorous attitude is inexcusable.
As I walk around campus, I often wonder what happened to the student political campaigning that was so prevalent during the primaries. It didn't consciously register until a stranger commented to me on the lack of support for either candidate on campus. In the following days, I realized he was absolutely right. A few people advised me I should register to vote, but no one tried to pitch a candidate or platform.
It was obvious that the apathy so apparent in other areas of life had slithered around the political portion of students' brains and closed it in a death grip. My initial thought, oddly enough, was to ignore the issue and let people solve it by themselves. Soon reason took hold, and I realized I couldn't fight laziness with indifference of my own. Something had to be done, but who was I to criticize people when my initial reaction to the situation was apathy?
This is the solution I came up with: We're all allowed to be lacking in our own motivations and actions in most cases, but when our apathy could affect others that privilege goes right out the window. I have no right to tell you you're being apathetic in your personal life, though I might choose to do so if you were a good enough friend. I do have a right to tell you when you're skirting your duty as a responsible citizen of this nation and when it's affecting me. That's exactly what you're doing when your only response to a hotly contested national election is to go on living like nothing is happening.
I'm tired of people saying the youth vote doesn't matter. I'm tired of people meeting me, noting my age and immediately assuming politics aren't important to me. I'm tired when I see students who can't even pretend to give a damn about anything, important or not, walking around campus. Most of all, I'm tired of the way it spreads like wildfire from one totally indifferent person to the next.
I don't care if you support Democrats, Republicans, Obama, McCain, peanut butter, the color blue or the number 12. Get involved in the government and this election. Elected officials are the glue that holds this great nation together. Help decide who's going to be responsible for making it fit seamlessly together by supporting someone and telling your peers why they should too.
If you truly don't care, then just keep doing nothing like you have been all along. Keep perpetuating the myth that we students don't care about anything but partying on the weekends and that we couldn't possibly make decisions for ourselves. I'll be out there actually living life if you want to join.
Write to Logan at lmbraman@bsu.edu
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