ocelot (1000+ posts)
Fri Aug-01-08 10:40 PM
Original message
Driven crazy by people who don't care.
Edited on Fri Aug-01-08 10:42 PM by ocelot
So today I sort of bit the head off this nice young woman at work. She's a recent college graduate, seems smart enough. But we got into a discussion about the state of the world, and I was just amazed and appalled at how this nice, smart young woman just doesn't care. It went sort of like this:
Me: Doesn't it bother you that our government now tortures people and throws them in secret prisons and spies on its own citizens?
Nice Young Woman: Yeah, sort of, I guess, if that's what's really happening.
Me: It is what's happening. The president now has the power to throw a person in prison without a trial or access to an attorney and just leave them there forever. Anybody. Doesn't that scare you a little?
Nice Young Woman: Not really, because I haven't done anything wrong.
Me: Some of the people who are still locked up in Guantanamo are innocent. They were sold by Afghan warlords to get the ransom.
Nice Young Woman: Well, I really don't think much about those things. They don't affect me. I mean, nothing in our lives really changes on account of that, does it?
Me: You're young, you might have kids someday. Don't you care about what kind of country you'll be living in some day? I'm old and I won't have to live with this mess as long as you will. Why would you not get involved? This stuff matters!
Nice Young Woman: Oh, I don't know. All politicians are the same, it doesn't make any difference. I don't even know who I'll vote for, I'll probably make up my mind in October.
Me: (starting to rant) You can't decide? You can't tell the DIFFERENCE? Good God, they are completely the opposite! McCain wants to start a war with Iran, for Christ's sake! What do you think that will do to oil prices?
Nice Young Woman: Oh, they'll go way up.
Me: And don't you think the government can't control this? What about the economy, and our jobs (we work in a fuel-dependent industry)? This MATTERS!
Nice Young Woman: I guess...
And so it went. She's the second person in so many days who's told me that this stuff isn't all that important because all politicians are the same and it doesn't make any difference. And they were both young people who SHOULD care. It's very discouraging.
Just venting.
